Building from ashes
by LightningWolfHowl
Summary: Rewrite of Worst camping trip ever. In a last ditch effort to get his feuding father and younger brother together, Reggie suggests a camping trip for the family. Unfortunately, where Paul and Pyramid King Brandon are concerned, things are never that easy... Rated T for language.
1. Three photographs

_**Author's note: Hi. This is a rewrite of a fic I wrote a VERY long time ago, The Worst camping trip ever... I was going to finish it but after reading it, I realized that it was pretty darn awful so I'm going to try writing it again. I've left it up but please bare in mind that it was written the best part of 10 years ago. Obviously a lot changes in that much time. Whilst this version bares some similarity to the original, there will be many differences notably in format and grammatical errors.**_

 _ **That being said, I hope you enjoy it. Please don't hesitate to review. Any/all opinions are welcome.**_

 _ **/**_

There were three copies of a photo which existed in the world. They were each very much the same whilst also being remarkably different. A family of four features prominently on them: a young couple and two boys, the oldest was about eight and the youngest no more than four. They were close, smiling and so obviously happy.

The first of the pictures showed its age. It was folded and worn around its corners. Curiously, despite the damage, the photo itself remained bright, rarely ever seeing the light of day. It lived its life in the inner pocket of its owners jacket, pressed up tightly against his heart. Should it ever be removed, it was only briefly, in times of great solitude. He would look around him, to ensure that nobody would ever see his moment's weakness. Then, he would give it a longing glance, a reminder of what had once been and never would be. A time long gone and when he had once been happy. He could have spent hours simply starring back at the image and remembering better times. It was a bitter-sweat escape as its owner knew all too well that what had been lost could never be found again.

The second had been worn by the sun. It sat in a little frame, pretty but nothing too fancy. The four faces kept watch of the owner whilst he slept. It had sat in the same spot for many years now, only being moved when it was time for dusting and being carefully placed back down with infinite precision when he was done. He had a ritual, every morning when he woke up, he would greet them with a 'hello' and would bit them goodnight before going to sleep. Sometimes, he would simply sit there and talk to them. Three faces of people who couldn't possibly hear him both because they were too far away and also, he knew too well, would no longer listen. Still, the image brought some comfort. It reminded him that despite everything, he wasn't entirely alone…

The last one was immaculate, sealed away in a small silver locket which never left its owners' pocket. It hadn't seen the light of day in a long while. If it was ever removed from the jacket, then it was never opened and was simply moved to another place where once again it would be sealed away. Its owner never looked, he didn't care to even do so much as think about it more than he had to. It was a symbol of anger for him, everything that had gone wrong in his life and the person who was to blame. There was a small piece of damage to the image, a set of scratches across the face of one of the figures which almost blurred out their features completely.

All three hadn't been in the same place for years, which was almost the same for their owners. Occasionally, two of them might encounter each other but for all three to be united? That was a truly rare event. There had been many attempts of course.

Today though, things were different and know it or not, all three were going to be reunited, even if two of them at least didn't quite know it yet.


	2. The plan

Despite the arrival of spring, there was still a slight chill in the air that morning as Reggie stood outside of his house. He wondered if it was because of his current tenant's bad mood. He hadn't bothered checking just what had gotten under his skin this morning, knowing full well that there was always _something_ but never anything that he would confide about. One thing he was certain of was that the young trainer had a way of sucking the oxygen out of a room and turning the atmosphere to ice when he turned up. Rather than continue to pester him – or at least, that was how he would see it – the breeder waited outside patiently, allowing him to finish his breakfast.

They didn't have long to wait now…

He let out a slight sigh. There was so much spinning round in his head at the moment, there had been for quite some time now. He wished he could find a way of making sense of it all and organizing it but so far that eluded him. That was why he'd made a decision, he was going to try and do something, anything to fix this almighty mess he found himself confronted with. Time had taught him that it was never going to mend itself. So, he was going to have to be the one to try and tackle the problem, grab the bull by the horns as it were. Of course, he was fully aware that in a situation like this, it was more than likely to blow up in his face. After all, he was relying on the goodwill of two people who weren't exactly renowned for their patience, understanding and willingless to give others the benefit of the doubt. That was to say nothing of their stubbornness which in some circles was truly legendary.

He cast a sad glance to the sky for a few moments as harsh words and raised voices from long ago echoed through his mind. They should never have been said but they had and he wasn't entirely sure that there was still a chance to remedy the damage. Please. Please… He let out a silent prayer. Let this work…

The sound of an old motor caused him to lower his gaze back to the road leading up to his house. An old truck was trundling towards them, a rental no doubt and one which had seen better days. Figured… He never was one for comfort or big spending. In all likelihood, if he'd been given the time, he would have either taken his preferred method of transportation or walked. Still, Reggie was glad that he wasn't actually going to have to use the makeshift parking lot the size of two football stadiums he'd managed to clear in the few fields he owned.

The car pulled up. Reggie summoned his courage, taking a deep breath. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that he shouldn't have been as afraid as he was. After all, he wasn't in any physical danger. The new arrival would never lay a hand on him. It was more the emotional fallout that he always dreaded because he knew that one way or another, it would always come. It was enough to make him want to call it off and as he stood there, with his fists clenched, it felt almost as if he was preparing for a battle. Maybe, in some ways, he was.

The man got out of the car. Straight and rigid, if Reggie didn't know him better he would have said that he was ex-army sometimes. Heck, maybe he was, it wasn't as if he knew much about who he had been in his passed life, at least not beyond a certain point. He walked briskly over to him, covering the distance rapidly.

"Hey." Reggie called out to the man. "Good to see you again."  
"You too..." The man agreed his voice solemn.  
"I take it it was an uneventful drive down?" The young man asked eager to make conversation.  
"Yes. I suppose so..." The man's voice trailed off for a moment. "You called me."

Straight to the point as always. It was either a quality or a fault but the man wasn't one for beating around the bush. If a direct question was asked, a good answer better follow. Given how vague Reggie had chosen to be on the phone, no doubt the man could sense that something wasn't quite right. Idle banter, never a favorite activity of his anyway, wasn't on his agenda. Naturally, he would be assuming the worst. He was the kind of man who always prepared for the worst and knew how to adapt into situations which weren't quite as bad. It was only the worst which would ever draw him out here. That made Reggie feel a little guilty about calling him out in the first place.

It didn't seem to matter that he was no longer physically looking up to the man. The fact was that in his presence, he always felt small and when it came to looking him in the eye, well you could forget about it. He'd better not keep the man waiting too long for an answer, experience had taught him that he wasn't the most patient of people.

"It's well… You know..." Man, he'd planned this all out in his head and now it was coming out as incoherent mumblings. "Next week is..."  
"He's inside, isn't he?" The man cut him short, not attempting to hide his exasperation.  
"How did you-?" Reggie began.  
"How did I know? I know because this isn't exactly the first time you've pulled a stunt like this. I'm disappointed that you called it an emergency though."  
"Well, what would you have called it?"  
"An everyday occurrence."

Well, that was that. He half expected the man to turn around, get back into his car and drive off. He didn't though and that puzzled the breeder a little. The man seemed to just stare at him for a moment, it was near to impossible to work out what was going through his mind and the silence that he maintained so effortlessly only seemed to make things more awkward for the young man. He had a way of making you feel small which Reggie had long since grown accustomed to. It was something you accepted if you lived and worked with him. Either that or you left. That was why they were here in the first place after all.

Reggie looked down, accepting the silent scolding and lecture without so much as a complaint. He knew what he did was both reckless and a good way to anger someone who on all accounts had a lot on his plate at the moment but the fact was that this had to be done.

He was shaken out of his stupor by the man who walked past him. He stopped just in front of the porch before folding his arms across his chest as he admired the house. Admire, might have been the wrong word for it, more like passed a disinterested glance over it. Reggie hadn't been expecting him to gasp in admiration. It wasn't the biggest place in the world but was more than enough for his needs. It was the land he was more interested in, he needed the space for his Pokemon after all.

"So… This is your house?"  
"Yes." He turned around to look at it. "Bought it with the money mom left me."  
"Figured." The man muttered looking around once more. "Are you going to show me around?"  
"You're coming in?"

The man simply shrugged. Whether it was curiosity or simply a need to stretch his legs after the car journey which motivated him remained to be seen however. Reggie could easily have believed both. He was already aware that the house was hardly going to thrill the man. Unless he had changed greatly, he took little to no interest in such things. Were he dealing with anyone else, the pokemon breeder was pretty sure he would have left a while ago. Feigning interest was a step in the right direction, he supposed.

He opened the door, allowing the man in. He entered without saying a word. Everything was simple and neat, the way he liked it. At least the man wouldn't find fault in the cleanliness not that he was the type to notice such things. If his memory was correct, Reggie could recall his old house being in a hell of a state sometimes and it was only reluctantly that the man would do anything about it. So, he was in no position to start rattling on. Not that he would, the pokemon breeder would be truly surprised if he said more than a couple of words here or there.

He stopped in the living room, his eyes focused on the badges in their cases. All there, all save for one.

"You kept them all." The man noted approaching them.  
"Seemed pointless throwing them out." Reggie explained stepping over. "I'm not about to turn my back on that part of my past."  
"Good. You might have learnt something." The man declared his eyes focusing on where the missing Frontier Symbol should have been.  
"I had a good teacher."

The man turned back to look at him, casting him an uncertain glance. Reggie tried his best not to shy away as he had done earlier. He knew the man well enough to know that not only would he notice but it would only irritate him. As calm and stoic as he might appear, there was little doubt in the breeder's mind that his visitor knew full well that something was afoot. It was only a matter of time before he stopped this little act of his, which he was only doing half-heartedly and decided to tackle the elephant in the room. No doubt, he would already have figured out that this could only be about a handful of issues.

"What's he gone and done now?" The man grumbled after a while as they entered into the corridor leading towards the kitchen.  
"What?" Reggie raised his eyebrows trying his best to appear to be clueless.  
"The last time you called me, it was so that I could bail that brother of yours out of jail." He reminded him not even turning to greet him.  
"You know he's cleaned up his act." The pokemon breeder hesitated a moment before adding under his breath. "More or less..."  
"It's the _less_ I worry about."

It was a sad fact that pretty much every single time the two of them were together, it was for the same reason. It was more or less severe. The man had often made him fully aware that IF he was going to disturb him about his brother then it had better be because of something pretty darn serious. What qualified serious was becoming increasingly select and as the months and years trickled by it was only matters which actually physically required his presence which would lead him here.

Reggie hesitated a moment, he had better level with the man sooner rather than later. Dragging this out was only going to end badly. Still, he wondered where to begin. Going about things the wrong way would no doubt just get the man storming out, likely before he had even heard the end of what the pokemon trainer had to say. The way that the visitor stood there however, with his arms folded across his chest and that intimidating frown which seemed to be his almost permanent facial expression told him that he was out of thinking time however and that he would be best to start talking.

"You're right… It is Paul that I'm worried about."  
"What a surprise..." The man rolled his eyes.  
"Please, let me finish." Reggie requested in a quiet voice. "Anyway, after the Battle Pyramid I thought that-"  
"I told you never to bring that up again."

A voice coming from the doorway drew both their attention. The timing was such that Reggie had to wonder if his little brother hadn't spotted the man pulling up outside, watched from a window, eavesdropped and waited for the precise moment when his appearance would have the most impact. He really, REALLY, wouldn't have put it past the lad. Over the past few years, Paul had literally turned the act of making both making himself hated (he wouldn't be surprised if within a year or so he was the most hated trainer in all of Sinnoh) and generally ruining a good atmosphere by turning it ice cold into a fine art.

The man shot the boy a cold glare, the likes of which would cause most people to shut up instantly. Unfortunately, it only seemed to encourage the lad. Slowly, the man walked over to him. With each step he took, Reggie readied himself for the hostilities to come. There was no point intervening just yet. He'd learnt the hard way that it paid not to get between the two of them until they had blown off at least some of their steam and had traded a few verbal blows. Until then… The Pokemon breeder allowed himself to plop down in an armchair, trying his best to steady his nerves and wait until the worst of the inevitable storm had blown over.

"Paul." That was it for the man's greeting, cold like steel and with a harshness he made no attempt to hide.  
"Brandon." Equally the disgust and resentment was plain to anyone watching.  
"Here we go..." Reggie muttered quietly to himself.

To their credit, the two of them made an effort in public not to tear into each other but that was only so that more questions weren't raised. In private however… Well, the gloves came off. Were their personalities even slightly different, then it would almost certainly have been more bearable. As it was, he knew that a tidal wave was about to go up against a mountain. He'd seen it many times before and was fully prepared for what was to come. Just sitting back and letting things play out was the only way to proceed for the moment. It wasn't as if they were going to listen to him anyway.

"Are you in trouble again?" The man looked down coldly at the boy.  
"Not unless you're the one bringing it." Paul replied looking his straight in the eye.  
"I hardly need to do that..." Brandon reminded the boy. "Of the twelve."  
"Eleven." Paul corrected him.  
"Eleven." The man took it into account as he continued. "Times our paths have crossed in the past five years, eight of the have been when I was called because you had gotten into trouble of one kind or another. Even, Snowpoint was sheer dumb luck!"  
"Bad luck..." Paul replied in a low voice. "You freaking humiliated me! You realize that?!"  
"You did that much yourself." Brandon shook his head. "And you will mind your language in my presence!"

Snowpoint remained in Reggie's mind one of the worst experiences he had ever lived for. It had been both a shock and a silent humiliation for him. Something he hadn't been able to let the others catch on to, at least as anything other than concern for his little brother. Paul had been fuming. It was probably the single longest rant he had ever had to listen to from him and had started pretty much as soon as they departed from the Battle Pyramid, only finishing when the pokemon breeder had been forced to almost lock him in his room until he shut up and stopped swearing. It remained a bitter incident and one which despite a few tentative attempts to get him to open up a little from his brother, Paul refused to talk about.

"Why the hell do you care?" Paul continued, his voice gradually raising in volume. "It's not like you're ever around to be bothered by it!"  
"Your wish again, if I remember correctly." The man replied stiffly. "You can only blame so much on me, kid."  
"Can I? You're the one who was supposed to have raised me! Sort of makes me your responsibility doesn't it?"  
"I washed my hands of that affair a long time ago." Brandon reminded the lad. "What was it you said to me? Ah yes! "Get the hell out of here you" I'll spare you that part. "I don't need you, I never have and I never will"."  
"Assho-"  
"Language boy!" Brandon snapped angrily.

Reggie peered over from his position in the armchair. They had seemingly forgotten about him completely. Had it been just him and Paul then they might have been able to chat a little. Just him and Brandon, things would have been awkward but if you'd forced him to guess, he would have said that they could have made it work. With the three of them together? Nope, no way, not happening. If left to themselves, they could go on like this for hours potentially. His presence didn't bother them in the slightest and neither would ever turn to him for backup, they didn't feel that they needed it.

"You get to talk back when you beat me." The man continued a moment later.

Shoot. That was it. The signal Reggie had been waiting for. The thing that would push Paul over the edge. Brandon knew that full well of course. He just did it out of spite and to make a point as far as the eldest brother could tell.

If Paul lost 90% of the arguments with Brandon, it was because of his temper. Brandon knew how to draw out said temper remarkably well. Instantly, the lad's face clouded over as anger took over from reason. He clenched his fists. The Frontier Brain tensed up slightly, maintaining an air of superiority but none-the-less ready should Paul lose not only his temper but all trace of reason as well. More than once, they had witnessed the lad swing a fist at someone who had gotten on the wrong side of his anger. Before it could get to that stage however, Reggie intended to intervene. By now, they had hopefully blown off enough steam to be reasoned with.

"That's enough you two." He spoke up, rising from the armchair.  
"Stay out of this Reggie!" Paul commanded looking past Brandon in order to shout at them.  
"No! Not this time..." He replied walking forwards and pushing the two apart. "You two are going to listen to me for once!"

Amazingly, they both remained silent. He had their attention all right. Now, he would have to speak quickly if he wanted to maintain that of Paul. Brandon would hear him out. Fortunately, the fact that he'd actually managed to break them up for once, gave him some courage. There was some anger behind both of their eyes, no doubt their frustration had built up to a certain point and now that they couldn't take it out on each other… Well, he had better explain himself sooner rather than later if he wanted to avoid more trouble.

"This… It can't go on!" He told the two of them. "You realize we're a family right? As in father and sons?  
"Not any more..." Paul's voice was low and cutting. "Not since..."  
"Yeah! You and Brandon decided that much. I don't remember being asked for my opinion."  
"You can't be that naïve..." Brandon began.  
"Yes I can. Just think about me for a sec, would you? I mean, I'm stuck between the two of you! Snowpoint, that was embarrassing to put things lightly. You two pretending not to even know each other. You got that down to a fine act!"

Both of them looked away from him at that point. It would seem that Snowpoint remained something of a touchy subject for the two of them. Good, perhaps he could use that to his advantage. If the truth was told, he would much rather not bring up those events. They hadn't been one of the prouder moments in his life. He remembered being a mixture of horrified and livid at both his brother and father. The former for making a scene, the latter for humiliating his youngest son and both of them together for refusing to acknowledge the other. If he'd gone along with it it was only because it was their status quo and he had wanted to avoid an all out fight in front of so many others.

"Where are you going with this, lad?" Brandon asked blunt as always.  
"I'm asking- No, telling you to give this another chance." He declared earning some wide eyed looks.

He had been expecting as much. Just to get there together like this, he had been forced to lie to them: telling Paul that he should come and check out a move his Magmar had just learnt and simply informing Brandon that he needed to see him (as far as their father was concerned, that meant it had to be something pretty serious). Neither of them, would like the idea. He wasn't stupid enough to believe that they would. Hence, the secrecy… After a few moments, Paul grunted and shook his head.

"You might not have noticed Reggie but I'm busy with other things: namely the Sinnoh League." He waved his hand dismissively.  
"I also happen to have work, back in Kanto… I won't be in Snowpoint for much longer." Brandon shook his head negatively. "Sorry kid but it just wouldn't work out."  
"Hence why it would be a short trip. I've already planned everything out: the route, our stops and I've even got your supplies ready. It will be one week's trip." Reggie told the two of them. "Specifically a camping trip."

It was a shame really that he didn't have a camera. Their faces were rather priceless. If he'd managed to get a shot, it would no doubt have made for precious blackmail material in the future. With these two, he had discovered that blackmail could sometimes come in surprisingly handy. It was clear as day to him that his idea struck them as so preposterous they didn't even know how to act. Either that or they thought that it was a stroke of genius so profound that they simply didn't know what words could compare to it. Somehow however, the eldest brother doubted it.

He waited uneasily for a response. The longer the silence dragged out, the more he dreaded the response. Finally, after what felt like almost an eternity of them staring at him as if he had just grown another head, Paul spoke out in his typical condescending tone:

"I can't believe you just said that..."  
"Yes. Truly the worst idea that I've heard since Tucker decided he was going to wear pixie wings." Brandon agreed nodding slowly.  
"Well… I wasn't exactly expecting you'd jump at the opportunity." Reggie conceded looking away for a moment. "Which is why I'm willing to make a deal."  
"A deal? With what?" Paul asked raising an eyebrow quizzically. "It's going to take more than saying you'll do the dishes for a week!"  
"I know." He replied forcing himself not to answer back to Paul's sarcastic tone. "Which is why, I promise, if you agree to this, I'll never try to get you two talking again."

That caused them to stop and think. He could see it. Reggie was as aware as anyone else that he drove the two of them nuts with his constant insisting that they at least try and get along. They'd told him as much. At times, it would seem that it was even too much. He'd known them to give up on answering his calls from time to time assuming that they were just going to be hassled and bullied into sending a Christmas card or something similar. He knew they would liked to have cut that part of their dealings with him out of the question. Apparently, for both of them, talking to Reggie was fine so long as their youngest son/father was never brought up.

It was Brandon who spoke first, uneasy and evidently a little skeptical:

"Never again?"  
"Never again." Reggie placed his hand over his heart for effect. "I swear."  
"Well then young man, I see no reason why not." Brandon held out his hand as if he were agreeing to a business proposal.

Reggie was quick to shake his father's hand. He could tell that the man wasn't happy about this and that one way or another, regardless on how it all ended, he was going to be blamed for it all but it didn't matter. One down. One to go.

That left Paul. He was a lot harder to predict. Reggie wouldn't put it past him to refuse simply because Brandon had accepted. He was an expect at making himself a pain like that in times like this. All they could do was hope that the lad would see that agreeing to it would ultimately prove more beneficial to him in the long run as opposed to trying to score some cheap points against their father right now. He was definitely taking his time thinking it through, that was for sure. Were their positions reversed, the pokemon breeder knew which option he would have chosen. Although, the elder brother had given up long ago trying to work out what was going through that brain of his…

Finally, after making everyone wait, Pail slipped his hands in his pockets and shrugged indifferently.

"I don't know what you expect to happen... Us to sit round a camp fire and sing "Kumbaya"?" He sounded bored already. "But if it means I never have to hear about him again-" Paul shot the Pyramid King a particularly cold glare which the man returned. "-then so be it.."

That was it. No handshake. Nothing. Well at least it didn't feel quite so much like a business contract.

They stood there for a moment in silence. It was one of those awkward moments where Reggie rather hoped that one of them would say something, even if it was either Brandon or Paul making some comment about the other one. Instead, they just seemed to stand there starring at each other and looking lost. If this was a taste of things to come then they were in for a rather tedious time. With any luck, the longer they spent in each other's company the more the two of them would open up. That was the theory at least… In practice knowing these two, they could easily make his life hell for a week. Still, it was gamble he was going to have to take if they had any chance of getting back to normal.

"So.. You guys up for some dinner?" Reggie asked eager to try and get things moving at least a little.  
"I guess..." Paul shrugged his shoulders.  
"Might as well." Was Brandon's response.

Reggie struggled to hold back a sigh. This wasn't going to be easy…


	3. Day one

**_Thanks for the reviews. Yeah... Like I said, I was a lot younger when I was writing the original. I'm almost tempted to delete it... I also appreciate spelling mistakes/grammar errors being pointed out (I think I've mentioned but I've never really been schooled in English). So I must apologize for those when they pop-up. Still, nice to know that there are still some people on here who read the original or embarrassing to know, I haven't quite decided yet. :)_**

 ** _/_**

Morning came around steadily. Reggie tried his best to sleep as much as possible. He had a feeling in his gut that he wasn't going to get quite as much as he usually did in the coming days so he'd might as well prepare for it now.

He could probably have slept on a little bit when the smell of something cooking in the kitchen served to stir him. It took a few moments for his brain to kick into gear and remember just why he could potentially be smelling something from the kitchen. He groaned slightly, brushing his hair out of his eyes before sitting up. His eyes drifted over to the picture by the side of his bed. A soft but somewhat sad smile appeared on his face. His eyes drifted over to the face of a young woman with her arms wrapped around the neck of her eldest son.

"Well… This is it mom." He spoke silently to the photo. "Giving it my all. I've got to get those two back together."

He got out of bed silently. At this early hour of the morning, he doubted that his brother would be awake. He was even more dubious as to whether he would start preparing food. Paul was the sort of guy who didn't care what he ate so long as it prevented him from starving. He most definitely wouldn't go to any effort to prepare it. Reggie suspected that it was only the few times that he was round at their place that the boy actually ate a decent meal. As such, he always went to the effort of preparing something wholesome whenever the lad decided to grace him with his presence, which was increasingly rarely these days.

Putting on his slippers, he left his room. He checked on his brother quickly, opening the door open a crack. Paul was still there and hadn't attempted to do a runner it would seem. He was however still fast asleep, it was probably best not to wake him. Instead, he shut the door before making his way downstairs.

In the kitchen, he found Brandon preparing breakfast. Trust the man to make himself at home without actually being invited to do so. He'd gone through the kitchen, found what he needed to start cooking and done so, all without asking for permission. Today, it looked like bacon, eggs and beans were on the menu this morning. Reggie stood in the doorway watching for a few seconds, a fry-up seemed to be just about the only thing his father really knew how to do and even then, it was something of a curious concoction which somebody really should go over with him. It was no secret to those who knew him that the Pyramid King wasn't the greatest cook in the world. Samuel, his assistant would do most of the cooking for him, although curiously he seemed to manage okay when he was out camping. It was as if a kitchen somehow confused him.

The man glanced over his shoulder. As he took note of the pokemon breeder's presence. After a period of the usual "Oh right, I have a son" stare, amazingly Brandon managed a slight smile.

"Morning." The man declared.

"Morning." Reggie responded offering him a warm smile. "Sleep well?"

"Fine."

Reggie cast a glance into the living room. It didn't matter that he had offered to take the couch whilst Brandon slept in his bed, they could have had a thousand bedrooms and the frontier brain would still have opted for the darn couch. He always did. Reggie couldn't recall the man sleeping in a bed in their presence in the past five years. All to distance himself from the prospect of this being anything other than an extremely temporary stay. An actual bed had a feeling of something a little more permanent to it which naturally he would reject. At least he cleaned up after himself, there was absolutely no trace of his presence, no doubt what he intended.

No time to think about that. Now that the two of them were up, there was a chance that the commotion would serve to wake up Paul. That meant that there had to be as few sources for a potential argument as possible. That meant nothing which the lad could and would remark about. Because Reggie knew his little brother and was fully aware that if his father did even the slightest thing out of place, he would let him know. Trying to take his mind off of the challenge awaiting him, the pokemon breeder came over to inspect the pans his father was currently using.

"Smells good." He informed the man coming over.

Brandon gave him an odd look. Reggie let out a sigh and headed over to the counter where he usually ate his breakfast. Given that he already didn't know what to say to the man, it looked as if they were in for a fun week ahead. Hopefully, things would find their own pace. It was always awkward the first few hours they were back together. It was as if they were out of practice; being father and son apparently didn't come quite very naturally to any of them. Whilst it might (the pokemon breeder dared to hope) have been easier for him and Brandon to eventually get back into the swing of things, it was naturally Paul he was more concerned about. Frankly, if at the end of the week they had stopped periodically insulting each other, he would consider it a victory.

He was stirred from his thoughts when a plate of food was placed in front of him. He raised his eyes to meet those of Brandon, apparently done cooking. His gaze travelled back down to the fry-up.

"Thanks..." He muttered quite genuinely.

The frontier brain said nothing, simply nodding as a response before sitting down opposite him on the table and starting to eat. For a few moments, Reggie simply watched him wondering when the last time they had been together like this had been. A while ago no doubt, if he put his mind to it, he could probably remember the exact date. It wasn't as if there were that many to chose from.

He turned back to his food before deciding to get started before it got cold. Although it had been a good few years since had been 'treated' to his father's cooking, Reggie found that it hadn't changed in the slightest. Taste-wise, it was perfectly edible, it was more just what it was doing to his arteries which concerned him. Brandon had a bad habit of using a truly excessive amount of oil, creating a veritable pool of the stuff. Noland, the factory head, had often joked about it, saying Brandon's cooking could have been used to run his plane. To the Pyramid King's credit, he never claimed to be even a competent cook using the "it's better than starving argument". In that respect, he wasn't entirely wrong.

"What do you hope to accomplish by doing this, Reggie?" Brandon's words startled him given the silence which had proceeded them.

"What?"

"I'm saying: what do you think will happen at then end of all this?" The man reformulated his sentence.

"Well, I think we both know there's what I hope will happen and what's likely to." Reggie muttered looking away for a moment.

Brandon chose not to respond immediately. He liked to be able to chew things over a few times in his head. There was little doubt in Reggie's mind that whilst his promise of stopping to bother them after the end of this week would have had some effect on the Pyramid King, he remained a man very much governed by what he _wanted_ to do. That meant that if he was still here, then maybe it wasn't entirely a lost cause after all. That served to give the Pokemon breeder at least some hope as he sat there.

"Can't fault your optimism." Brandon spoke after a minute or so.  
"Brandon… Can I rely on your help?" The Frontier Brain gave him a confused glance. "You know Paul's going to be difficult. Don't let him get under your skin."

Asking Paul would be a waste of time. Reggie knew him well enough to know that he was far too pig-headed to ever listen to what anyone else, much less his older brother or father were telling him. As such, he had decided to waste little to no time in trying to get the young trainer to play nice because simply put: it wasn't going to happen. Instead, he was going to take a chance. His idea was simple: if everyone around him was being nice, perhaps Paul would try it as well. It would in theory at least limit the amount of things he could get worked up about. That being said, it wasn't as if the kindness of others tended to have any effect on the lad, if anything, it seemed to get him all the more worked up such as with Ash and his friends.

With the Pyramid King here however, he hoped that things might be a little different. Perhaps, if he could keep those two from fighting for just long enough, Paul might be willing to give the man a second chance which in turn would mean that Brandon wasn't spending the entirety of his time scolding his youngest which only ever served to make things worse. Of course, all that depended on if their father was willing to play ball and Reggie knew from personal experience that the man could be tremendously stubborn where his adrift son was concerned.

"I think you're being foolish." Brandon informed his eldest, his voice quite serious. "Still… I dread to think what your mother would have had to say if I didn't at least try. Very well… I'll do my best to avoid a fight."

"Thanks Brandon."

The man nodded once but said nothing else. It was more than Reggie could have hoped for. He must have been in a good mood or something. With nothing else to do, they chatted. It was idle banter of absolutely no importance. Not the sort of thing which Brandon typically partook in and it showed, the long pauses and monosyllabic answers but he was making an effort. He should be grateful for that much at least. The man showed some interest in just what he was doing as a breeder. When he asked him about how his explorations at Snowpoint had gone, the man was a little evasive. Apparently, he hadn't gotten the pokemon then…

The sound of some footsteps on the stairs caused Reggie to look around. Paul was up. Now the fun would start. He cast his father a brief glance, the man would say nothing at least not unless truly provoked. The lad came in slowly, his gaze drifted from his eldest brother to instinctively focus on his father. Time to intervene before some snide remarks about Brandon's cooking were made.

"Morning Paul!" Reggie declared getting up and stepping forwards. "Did you sleep well?"

"Too warm..." Paul's eyes narrowed as he contemplated his brother. "You nailed my window shut."

"Well..." The eldest brother rubbed the back of his neck somewhat embarrassed. "Didn't want you escaping now did I?"

Paul simply huffed. He made his way into the kitchen taking note of the food prepared by his father. There was still some left should he decide to accept. A simple glance was all the lad required before he walked past. Reggie struggled with the urge to roll his eyes as he watched his younger brother simply take a piece of bred and eat it whilst still standing up. The pokemon breeder turned briefly to check on his father, to his credit the man wasn't taking it personally. Hopefully, he would be able to keep this up for a while longer.

"So when are we leaving?" Paul asked them as he leaned back against the counter.

"As soon as you're both ready." Reggie replied glancing up at the clock.

"I'm all packed." Brandon informed his sons. "I've informed Samuel that I'll be gone for a while."

"Guess that leaves you Paul." The eldest turned to his sibling. "You all ready?"

"Yeah. Sure."

The rest of the meal passed in complete silence. Paul made a point of ignoring everything that Brandon had prepared, not even acknowledging its presence. That was only to be expected. He was going to be doing things like this for next foreseeable future, the only uncertainty was whether or not Brandon would keep his cool and avoid reacting to them. Because that's precisely what the Frontier Brain's youngest would want, the chance to start a fight.

Whilst Brandon agreed to deal with the dishes, Reggie returned quickly to his room in order to grab his rucksack and a couple of last minute provisions. He took extra care when picking up the photograph, treating it as if it were made out of glass. He gave all of the family one last kind look before slipping it into his bag. If Brandon and Paul claimed to be ready, then he had no reasons for doubting them. It wasn't as if either of them had a ton of possessions that they would try to carry around with them. Unless they had changed, they would carry only what they deemed to be an absolute necessity.

He found the two of them waiting patiently for him by the door. He had to ensure that everything was safely locked up before they left but made sure to do so as quickly as possible. Neither father nor son appreciated being kept waiting, least of all when they didn't particularly want to go on the trip in the first place. Reggie rather wished that he felt a little more confident as he shut the door behind him, locking it as he went but the truth was he wasn't. Brandon wasn't entirely wrong when he'd raised his doubts. It wasn't as if this was the first time he'd tried to get them back together although it was by far the most drastic measure he had ever taken, all previous attempts had been met with rather spectacular failure, usually just getting the two of them even more riled up.

Those thoughts troubled him as he drove along. His father sat in the passenger seat and Paul somewhere behind them. Neither said so much as a word. It would seem that they had both opted for the same strategy: say absolutely nothing to avoid conflict meaning they could make it to the end of this and then never have to talk to each other again. All Reggie could think was that this was going to be one hell of a trip if they kept it up which he believed both of them to be more than capable of doing. He would have to deal with that issue later on, for the time being at least they weren't tearing into each other.

"Why are we stopping?" Paul asked as they pulled up outside a small house in the suburbs of Veilstone.

"I need to give my keys to a friend." Reggie explained to his younger brother, unbuckling himself. "I'll only be a minute."

He closed the door, leaving the two of them be. He'd parked the car intentionally so that Paul wouldn't be able to see just who lived in the house he was about to knock at. Walking quickly, the young man decided not to make them wait for too long.

Paul watched carefully for as long as he could before his brother disappeared from view. Trust Reggie to park as far away as where he wanted to be as possible! With his brother out of sight, his eyes instinctively went back to focusing on the Frontier Brain sitting in the passenger seat. The man sat there with his arm resting half way out of the open window as he looked out at the surrounding town. It was probably a good thing Brandon wasn't more famous around Sinnoh or many other regions for that matter. Sure, people had _heard_ of the Pyramid King. Even then it wasn't exactly common knowledge and you wouldn't see his face plastered everywhere like you did that idiot with the pixie wings. It allowed him to both maintain an aura of mystery and not be bothered in public by people constantly trying to challenge him.

He was pretty sure that the man was fully aware he was being starred at yet he didn't react. Paul didn't speak, entering into a silent competition with his father for who would be the first to break the silence. The arrogance of him infuriated the lad. There was a man who had walked out on them years ago and whose only reaction whenever he encountered to his two suns again was generally to wipe the floor with them in a battle or to point out each and every one of their failings which seemed to be legion in his books. His mere presence served to infuriate the youngest of the brothers as even just sitting in the same car as him proved to be almost unbearable.

"What's Reggie even thinking?.." Paul growled lowly speaking his thoughts without even realizing it. "Does he think that a week's camping is really going to erase everything that's happened?!"

"Your brother's an eternal optimist." Brandon answered him without turning around. "When he puts his heart into something, there's just about no stopping it."

"Really? Then how come he gave up after losing once to _you_?" There was a barb on the end of the sentence which he expected to get a response.

"His heart wasn't in it..." The man replied after a few seconds. "But it sure as hell is in this."

"Then he's a fool."

Brandon didn't respond to that. Making it impossible for Paul to tell if he at least in part agreed with him. When met with the silence, he let out an exasperated sigh and opted instead for looking out the window and drumming his fingers loudly against the glass. _Get a move on…_ He mentally spurred on his brother.

Reggie meanwhile had reached the house. He knocked on the door carefully. The person would be in, he had checked before hand. Sure enough, a few moments later he found himself greeted by a woman with a broken nose and short pink hair. The smile she offered him was a quick one which struggled to hide her concern. As such, the pokemon trainer did his best to try and reassure her by returning the gesture.

"You're sure about this?" She asked him, skipping the "hallo" all together.

"I'd be lying if I said I was convinced it was going to work." He admitted letting out a sigh. "-but Paul and my dad are in the car together so I'm going to give it a try."

Curious, Maylene accompanied him to the edge of her garden. From there, they could make-out the car. He doubted that either of the two inside could see them however as for starters they weren't even looking in the right direction. Good thing too. The encounter between the gym leader and his little brother had been less than pleasant and he dreaded to think what the lad would have said had he known that Reggie was about to give the keys to his house to her. No doubt there would have been the usual harsh and sarcastic comments made. The kid didn't seem to be able to help himself much to his brother's despair. Being nice or even just indifferent (as their father so often was) seemed to be something he simply wasn't capable of.

Speaking of, the two of them were actually sitting there in the car out of earshot and didn't seem to be laying into each other. Although anyone passing by would have mistaken them for being prisoners on their way to jail judging by their grave and vaguely angry expressions.

"So that's Pyramid King Brandon, huh? He looks, uh..." Her voice trailed off visibly searching for a word which wouldn't offend the eldest brother.

"Gruff? Angry? Mean? I've heard it all before." He laughed trying to relax her a bit. "He's a nice guy inside but well… Lets just say he's not the easiest man to get along with..." He hesitated a moment before adding. "Or to please..."

"I can see the resemblance to Paul." Maylene confessed before turning back to face the pokemon breeder. "But you..."

"I look more like my mom." Reggie informed her smiling softly. "Remember? I told you about her. I wish you could have met her. She really was the kindest person you would ever meet."

"And she ended up with Moody of Grump Town over there?" Maylene couldn't help but ask.

Reggie had to laugh at that. He'd told her about his father before. Unfortunately, many of the stories ended up portraying the man in a slightly unfavourable light. It wasn't exactly true… The problem with Brandon was that it took him a while to open up to others. By that read, he would only do it when he really felt like it. A lot of people would be faced with a stern, humourless and proud man who seldom cracked a smile. As such, many of his amusing tales related to the Frontier Brain having to deal with some of his more 'excitable' challengers and generally moping the floor with them to prove a point. Either that or his encounters with Tucker which for some reason tended to end with the Pyramid King vowing to throttle the Dome Ace after defeating all of his Pokemon using just a Magikarp. For the moment, the said battle had never taken place.

"Yeah. World's funny like that..." Reggie smiled sadly to himself for a moment.

"Well, they certainly look like they're enjoying each other's company." Maylene couldn't help but comment.

"Yeah well… Dad's a perpetual frowner and Paul you know." Reggie rubbed the back of his neck a little awkwardly. "That and they don't exactly bring out the best in each other."

"So… Why are you doing this again?"

How many times had he asked himself that question over the last few days? No, years. A lot. Really, more than he cared to count. It seemed like such a stupid thing to do. He was ramming his head against a brick wall again and again with these two. They didn't want to have anything to do with the other and every time he tried to change that it almost always ended up blowing up in his face. Logically, it shouldn't be any different this time. He wondered for a moment how he could best explain himself to his friend… It was difficult when she hadn't known them for very long and the few encounters that she had had with them had only been with Paul who frankly had a way of making most people hate him.

Eventually, he let out a sigh as he contemplated the two from a distance. He wished he could travel back and show her the good old days. He was fully aware that she struggled to see Paul as anything other than the trainer who had humiliated her. If she'd known him and indeed Brandon back then… Well, things might very well be different...

"Because they weren't always like this." Reggie informed her as they looked at the two, memories came flooding back to him. "I know it's hard to believe but dad and Paul, they were really close once. My brother used to idolize him… He'd even dress up as Regirock sometimes."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah… Remind me to show you a picture just in case Paul ever comes back in a bad mood. It's pretty good leverage."

"You're a good person Reggie." The declaration caught him off guard.

"Thanks..."

He smiled before giving her the keys. She promised to give him a call half way through the week just to let him know how things were going and to reassure him that the house hadn't burned down. He thanked her, promising to make it up to her somehow when he returned.

She watched him from a distance but chose to remain out of sight as he got into his car and drove off. His father expressed momentary interest in finding out just who he had left his keys with. With Paul in the car, Reggie chose simply to be a little vague and say "a friend". He wouldn't know them anyhow so stopped his interrogation quite quickly. The pokemon breeder suspected that if Brandon was concerned by such things then it was mainly because he feared for the safety of the house as opposed to his eldest son's social circle.

They set a course for the foot of mount Coronet. It was quiet, secluded and hopefully not somewhere where they could run into any distractions. Just a simple camping trip, that was all it was to be. No pokemon battles (asides perhaps those done in self-defence against wild pokemon), no gyms, no ancient ruins, no Battle Frontier, nothing asides each other.

It took them a good three hours driving to reach the point Reggie had selected for them. During that time, Paul and Brandon literally didn't say a word. Not even an "are we there yet?". Close, confined spaces with absolute silence barring the sound of the engine were never pleasant and only served to remind the three of them that at least two of their number would be much happier somewhere else doing their own things. Given he'd pretty much press-ganged them into coming along with him, the eldest brother wasn't too sure why he was surprised. So for the car journey, he decided not to try and force things. Maybe if they got their heads around what was going on, the two of them might actually start talking out of boredom more than anything else.

Pulling up at the foot of the mountain, Reggie carefully parked his car. It was pretty much impossible to come to Sinnoh without seeing mount Coronet. It dominated its surroundings and given it's location pretty much smack bang in the middle of the region, it was visible from almost all round. Although he knew quite a few young trainers would go there to try to train or alternatively simply be passing through. It was remote enough to provide the isolation they maybe needed. At least out here, he hoped that no one would interrupt them.

His father and Paul remained silent as they slung their bags over their shoulders and started the trek. Both of them were used to the exercise, as the youngest spent his time travelling for the most part on foot around the region in order to challenge the local gyms and Brandon, an adventurer by nature, wasn't about to shy away from a little bit of hiking. The worst thing they were likely to run into off of the beaten path was some wild pokemon and given that all three of them were competent battlers, he was reasonably confident that they could handle that threat if it ever arose. So, it wasn't the physical aspect which concerned him but more just what it was going to be like with these two over a prolonged period of time.

It was quite an ambitious climb they had planned. It would take nothing less to tempt both Brandon and Paul and to keep their interests peaked (no pun intended). Reggie was well aware that neither of them would appreciate a prolonged stroll through some flat countryside. They needed a challenge to keep them interested. Those two possessed some sort of combination of genes which the pokemon breeder felt he lacked: it was something which pushed the two of them to always strive to go further and better themselves, admirable but that often lead them to either confrontation or danger, often both. The eldest of the brothers would never have attempted such a journey in ordinary circumstances. His sibling might have just to see how he measured up. It was harder to tell with the Pyramid King, whilst he was by any standards a brave man, he had lost much of his foolishness and recklessness a long time ago (or at least so he claimed) and so was unlikelier to take unnecessary risks.

They made relatively fast progress. So far, the terrain wasn't all that difficult. Pretty darned easy in fact. That lead to much of the first day being spent in complete and utter silence. He was the only one who ever seemed to express a desire to talk, asking if any of them needed a rest or at one point questioning their father as to how many times he'd done something like this. More than the man cared to count apparently. That was largely it as far as discussions went that first day. Whilst Reggie couldn't exactly fault the logic that if they didn't say anything to one another they were more unlikely to end up fighting, it hardly served to create a pleasant atmosphere.

"We should camp here." Brandon declared as they arrived in a small clearing. "It will be dark soon."

"Sounds good." Reggie agreed nodding slightly.

Paul said nothing but set about getting a fire ready. Well at least he was doing something productive. Reggie for his part set about both helping their father with the tents and preparing some food for humans and pokemon alike. Again, barely a word passed between them save for when Paul managed to 'collide' with one of the pegs Brandon had just hammered in to the ground and almost went flying. There was a curse, the usual shout of "language boy!" but thankfully that was about it.

"Do the Regis eat Brandon?" Reggie asked his father as he prepared the dishes for all of the pokemon.

"No but some of my others do." The man replied sending out Dusclops and Ninjask.

"Dusclops eats?" The Pokemon breeder asked surprised to see it out.

"Well... It absorbs a whole lot of stuff if given the chance." Brandon replied glancing at his pokemon. "I'm not sure if he actually needs to but he looks all hard done to if I don't at least offer him something."

"Oh..." The eldest brother muttered wondering just what a hard done to Dusclops looked like.

Ninjask was quick to rush up to the food which Reggie had almost finished laying out for the pokemon, Dusclops however seemed to have other ideas. It hesitated for a moment, looking at all that food before suddenly turning around and charging off. Brandon watched it curiously, pausing setting up the final tent as the ghost rushed over to the youngest of his sons. Assuming it was simply curious, both Frontier Brain and breeder turned away eager to finish up their work. Paul, who had been trying his best to light the fire, turned to it giving the pokemon a cold glare for a few seconds. It looked him right in the eyes.

"What?!" He asked it, his voice marked by frustation.

"Dusclops!" Replied the Pokemon.

Paul's alarmed cry caused them both to spin around. Dusclops came trotting past Brandon before joining the others for dinner time. The pokemon trainer lay flat on his back, the ends of his clothes were somewhat singed. Any concerns his eldest brother and father might have had were quickly dismissed as the lad sat up a little shakingly. Almost as soon as he noticed he was being watched, his usual cold demeanour returned. Getting up, the family's youngest sat down in front of the fire and set about mindlessly poking it with a stick.

"A will-o-whisp." Brandon informed his eldest son when he turned to him for an explanation. "Apparently Dusclops thought that Paul needed some help."

"Seriously?!" Reggie questioned his eyes wide with confusion. "I hope Regirock never thinks I need a hug!"

"Who knows, kid? Maybe he gives really good hugs."

Reggie couldn't quite work out if his father was joking or not. It was almost impossible to tell sometimes with him. He wasn't the type to crack obvious puns. If he was joking, he wouldn't exactly leave a pause anticipating a laugh or anything. So he either was aware that he wasn't all that funny or was still trying to perfect his version of humour. His eldest son could easily have believed both. He opted for simply chuckling a little to avoid potentially causing offence. For the moment, he intended to stay well away from a Regirock hug, he doubted that the local chiropractor would be very sympathetic…

A few moments later, he joined his father and brother for dinner. It was pretty simple stuff, wholesome though. If nothing else, it would give him the chance to ensure that his little brother was eating properly for about a week. The only complement for the meal came from Brandon and had he been served up a piece of meat too charred to eat he would probably have thanked his son for it anyway. He at least seemed to be making an effort. Albeit a somewhat contrived and forced one which basically went something along the lines of: be nice (or at least try not to be hostile) to your eldest son and ignore the little one.

It was a technique he supposed. Sitting there round the fire, with nothing and nobody surrounding them, only each other. It was amazing how lonely you could feel even with company. Paul was sitting there looking absolutely disinterested with the world around him. Brandon was making some notes in an old journal. They'd seen it before, he seemed to carry it around pretty much everywhere with him. He'd definitely had it as long as Reggie could remember. He didn't care to ask the man about it however. He felt a little too tired to start bothering either of them right now.

"I'm going to bed." Paul announced, plainly and simply.

"Goodnight!" Reggie called after his brother as the latter disappeared into his tent.

He was optimistic in hoping for a response. Now-a-days it was pretty hard to tell with the lad if he was sulking and thus in a bad mood or if this was simply some sort of perpetual condition of his which lead him to being a near permanent grouch. The sooner that his little brother got his head around the notion that they were all in this together, the better. Of course, he could be impossibly stubborn and simply ignore both of them for the entirety of the trip. Reggie wouldn't put it past him. In any case, they were in for a bumpy ride.

"I think, I too shall retire." Brandon declared getting to his feet. "Try not to stay up too late."

"I won't." He promised turning back towards the man. "Sleep well."

"I hope to." The Pyramid King told him. "Goodnight, Reggie."

Reggie stayed out for a little while, waiting until the embers of the fire died down. His gaze fixed itself on the sky. He took advantage of the quiet that surrounded them, he was well aware that in the days ahead, he wasn't likely to know much more of it.


	4. Day two

"Come on out here Paul before Brandon finishes up breakfast!"

The hell? Paul found himself coming to rather violently. He had become so accustomed to solitude that the sound of his brother waking him up was something of a shock. It took a little while for him to remember just where he was and how he had come to get here. As soon as he did, he let out a silent curse, looking up at the top of his tent with his mind blank. There was a part of him, some slightly childish and naive part which had hoped that he had been dreaming or rather having a nightmare. He'd wished that he would open his eyes and find himself in a tent, yes but alone with only the Sinnoh League before him. This was the sort of absurd detour he didn't have time for, yet here he was… Wasting time and effort on a pointless venture all because his brother had asked him to.

The more he thought about it, the more this seemed like a completely idiotic thing to do. Granted, he had some time before he was actually meant to be there but said time could be much better spent training as opposed to camping. He supposed that he could insist at the end of this that Reggie drove him out to the Sinnoh League to make up for it which would more than make up for this week in the mountains. Of course, there was nothing his sibling could do which would be a sufficient apology for him having to spend a prolonged period of time in Brandon's presence. That was the one thing that he dreaded more than anything and had he been a little more prepared and had more time to think things through, Paul found himself coming to the conclusion that he would likely have refused to come along. What was done was done however and now, like it or not, he was stuck up here with the rest of his family.

Realizing that if Reggie was calling him then that meant that time must be marching on, Paul decided he had better get up before his older brother made him come out. Where the pokemon breeder was concerned that often involved the use of water. Still a little groggy and not quite fully awake yet, he none-the-less made the effort to leave his tent.

The light from outside dazzled him for a moment, forcing him to shield his eyes. He could hear some sounds though. Already around them the forest towards the lower part of the mountain seemed to have come to life, he could hear some of the calls of wild pokemon echoing around them. Equally, the sound of pots and pans clattering reminded him that he wasn't alone either. There mere presence served to irritate him and Reggie's next comment only seemed to make things worse:

"There you are… You sleep deeper than a Snorlax!"

It was well intentioned of course. Paul, despite not being the most social person in the world, was more than capable of telling when his brother was pulling his leg or gently teasing him. He responded with a loud "humph", letting him know that he wasn't in the mood for such pleasantries. As always, his brother just shrugged it off, never taking any offence: that was Reggie in a nutshell.

His gaze then turned to Brandon, the man was currently occupied folding away one of the tents, getting ready to move on. He did so easily. No doubt, he could have done it with one arm tied behind his back and a blindfold on. Give it a few years, Paul was confident that he could as well. Day in and day out of setting up camp and then moving on got them accustomed to the ins and outs of getting your tent ready. It had been Reggie who had taught him and no doubt their parents had been responsible for instructing him. It took the man a moment to acknowledge his youngest son's presence.

It was a hard thing to do to look his father in the eye. It served to stir up all of the bile and hatred which had formed over the years and remind him just why he so desperately didn't want to be there. Everything that he'd spent years which now felt like most of his life running away from and trying to deny was now standing only a few feet away curtsey of his only sibling. Sometimes, he absolutely loathed Reggie. It seemed as if his good heart and noble intentions could be traced back to most of the troubles in the Pokemon trainer's life. Paul shook his head trying to rid such thoughts from his mind. In a week's time, he wouldn't ever have to hear about his father again given that the main person to bring him up had sworn he would stop doing so.

Seven days, well, technically a bit less now, in the scheme of things wasn't a long time. He told himself that he'd spent the best part of a day behind bars. Surely, he could last six in the wilderness and these two.

He sat down at the opposite end of the fire to Brandon. Paying as little attention to the man as possible, he ate the food which had been left for him. For a moment, he felt the Frontier Brain's eyes rest upon him. _What's he expecting?_ Paul found himself wondering as he sat there. _Does he really think I'm going to play nice after everything he's done?_ His father's gaze always seemed to weigh a ton. It lingered on him for a few moments before turning away as he finished doing up his bag. When he turned away, his youngest looked back. He fixed the man briefly, just to ensure that he was still there. It had been long enough since they'd last woken up in the same rough geographical area. Somehow, his presence just felt plain old odd as well as unpleasant.

Paul was willing to do his part to help. Whilst in his mind his father and brother might perceive him as being self-serving, he wasn't about to be a burden to them. That would just be an insult. Not to them, he knew that both of them had pretty strong opinions, even although it might be less obvious in his brother's case. They felt they knew him and how he worked. That meant that in his mind, he had to prove them wrong. So, as soon as he had finished his breakfast, he set about washing up the dishes. He didn't care to see his family's reactions, simply concentrating on the task at hand.

They were ready to leave less than half an hour later. He'd memorized just where exactly they were heading. The route was rather difficult, that was surprising coming from Reggie, usually he was the cautious type. Mount Coronet might have been a popular area for young trainers but few would actually try to climb it. The proper mountaineering wouldn't be until the third or fourth day roughly so they had that to look forwards to. "Looking forwards to" being obviously something of a sarcastic thought in Paul's case. Only an idiot would have thought this up and there wasn't even a word to describe someone who would actually think that it could ever possibly work.

He said nothing as they set off walking steadily. Being quiet was something he was very used to. Those days travelling alone, unlike Ash and his little gang of friends, required no talking whatsoever. It was noticeable that things were getting gradually steeper as they continued to ascend. The one bright side to all this was that he might encounter some pokemon which could conceivably be of some use to him. That being said, he was rather content with his current team. Despite his recent bashing by Brandon, they were efficient and powerful. If anyone needed proof, they needed only to look at his recent confrontation with Ash. Unless they came across something truly incredible, then he saw no reason to change his current line-up by catching a new and more inexperienced pokemon. Which lead him back to the conclusion that this was a massive waste of, well pretty much everything really.

That thought would resurface several times. The silence left him simply to think. There were only so many things that he could ponder at a time like this. Yes, he could try and dream up different battle strategies in preparation for the approaching Sinnoh league or even wonder where he would go from there. Paul wasn't a fool, whilst the league was as he saw it an achievable goal, the Elite Four and the Champion were, no pun intended, in a league of their own. He was unlikely to get past them. None of that mattered, it all paled into insignificance regardless of how hard he tried. All of his thoughts inevitably came back to the same old thing, as if they were being pulled there by some supernatural force. _Him_ …

Once more, his eyes fixed the back of the Pyramid King. Why was he back in their lives? Only a soft-hearted fool like Reggie would ever think that they actually needed (much less wanted) him around. He knew for a fact that the Frontier Brain didn't want to be here either. He'd objected just as fervently (albeit more politely) to the idea, confirming that he too thought that his eldest son had popped a gasket. That left two people who didn't want to be in each other's company and another who was trying to force them together once again. How did anyone with any sense think that this was going to end well?!

They came to a small rocky ledge. It was probably only about twelve feet high. Brandon stopped for a moment, contemplating it. Paul waited for a moment, half-expecting him to declare it too dangerous and that they should fine another way around. That would bode pretty badly for the rest of the trip if this was enough to intimidate him. Oh, how the youngest of the brother's wished their father would chicken out. He didn't of course. His hesitation was likely just working out the best way to go about climbing it. The man reached out, finding some crevices which would support his weight. One, two, three. Somehow he was already at the top. Somewhat surprised at both the man's speed and agility, both brothers simply gawked up at him for a moment.

"What are you two waiting for?" He called down to them. "Don't tell me you're out of shape!"

That of course was like a red flag to a bull as far as Paul was concerned. Without waiting a moment longer, he rushed forwards and grabbed a hold of the rocks. It didn't matter if some of them were sharp and cut at his hands, the idea that his father was up there taunting him was unbearable. He realized that his older brother was starring at him. It took him a little while longer before also beginning to climb. For some reason, this didn't stop him from catching up with his younger brother remarkably quickly. Naturally, he was older and therefore taller and stronger but for some reason, it still irritated the younger sibling that he could be matched so quickly and seemingly easily.

Brandon peered down over the edge, watching their progress. When they neared the top, the man offered him his hand. Reggie of course, took it. He'd do pretty much anything to avoid a conflict and please their father. It turned Paul's stomach. Just how his sibling, who had lived through exactly the same events as he had could so easily forgive the man or at least pretend to was beyond him. He would have been lying if he said he didn't feel at least somewhat betrayed by that. The Pyramid King managed to easily help up the eldest of his sons before to Paul's surprise, he held out his hand once more.

The youngest son found himself starring at the man, not at his hand but rather at his face. That perpetual frown of Brandon's made it rather difficult to make out what was going through his mind. It took Paul a moment to realize why the man would possibly do such a thing. There were two reasons, either he believed him to be too weak to pull himself up. One of his two sons injuring themselves on a trip he was on wouldn't exactly look good if the press got a hold of that. Either that or Reggie had asked him to try and make an effort as part of the deal. Although both were possible, they equally had a common dominator: unsurprisingly, at the end of the day, it was all done to benefit him.

Paul swatted the hand away. Instead, he elected to pull himself up. It took more of his strength that he had initially anticipated bur he managed to hoist himself onto the rocks above. That lead him to be uncomfortably close to Brandon. The man looked down at him for a couple of moments. It was a gaze which carried a cold intensity that his youngest son managed to return. For a second, it looked as if the man might be about to say something. Instead, a disgruntled "hmph" was all the reaction he got. Then, the Pyramid King simply stood up and continued walking. The effort didn't seem to have affected him in the slightest.

Paul allowed the man to gain some ground. Irritatingly, Reggie stayed with him. No doubt waiting to make sure he was alright or some brotherly nonsense like that. After all these years, he still hadn't learned that he didn't need or want any help. Getting to his feet, the youngest brother started to follow their father, taking care to remain a good distance behind and well out of earshot. This didn't seem to bother Brandon who made no effort to wait for his sons, continuing on without so much as glancing over his shoulder to ensure they were still there.

"Kind of spritely for an old man..." Paul grumbled as he watched the Frontier Brain striding out ahead of them as if it were a meagre walk in the park.

"Given the amount of exploration he does, he's got to keep fit." Reggie told him before pausing for breath. "Besides… He's not decrepit."

"How old is he anyhow?" The youngest brother questioned in a quiet voice to ensure he couldn't be overheard.

"You mean you don't know?" His question was a genuine one.

"No." Paul shrugged his shoulders. "Why should I?"

"Oh, I don't know… Because he's our father?"

Paul had to bite his tongue to avoid snapping back at his brother. Instead, he tried to take his mind off of it by remembering just how old the Frontier Brain was.

Brandon had aged. Given the amount of time which tended to pass between the two of them seeing each other, it was always rather striking. The memory of his father Paul tended to maintain was that of a man with darker hair, chose to the same shade as Reggie's and a hard face but one which wasn't marked by the same lines it currently bore. Now, a myriad of steel coloured strands marked his hair causing the whole to look duller, no doubt in a few years he would be completely grey. Those dark eyes of his were also hard and cold, like ice. He looked like someone worn by the world. Any traces of youth had vanished, leaving place for the man he was now. For all that, he remained strong and sturdy, like an old tree. Paul had accepted long ago that the man he used to know was gone. This man, he was determined, would be a stranger to him.

He was like a spine in his foot, prickling him just enough to make him impossible to ignore but not enough to reasonably justify a fight. Brandon was a tricky customer, one of these guys nobody with any sense would have tried to provoke but given everything that had happened, Paul felt himself obliged to stand up to. The notion that he owed him anything or should even think about him other than the occasional reminder of how much he loathed him struck the lad as insulting.

"It's not like he's any better!" Paul snapped at his sibling.

"Who do you think paid for that Pokedex of yours? I'm not exactly made out of money."

For a split second, Paul considered handing the device over then and there. Fortunately, it didn't take him much longer to realize just why that would be a terrible idea. His pokedex was the one thing he couldn't do without. That was the sinister genius of his father's plan. _Clever old man…_ Paul thought as he glared up at the man who was still walking ahead, seemingly oblivious. Of course he would have known that such a gift would be something that his youngest couldn't do without, maybe he was trying to make a point and rub in the fact that try as both siblings might, they couldn't do without him.

"He told me not to tell you..." Reggie confessed looking down at his feet. "I guess he thought you wouldn't accept if you knew it was from him."

"What does he think he can just buy forgiveness?!" Paul growled his voice low and angry full of bile.

"Paul..." Reggie started far quieter than his sibling. "It wasn't his fault…"

Paul didn't respond, instead, he sped up in an attempt to get away from his brother. It was rare that Reggie chose to bring up the events relating to that night. Every time he did, it felt like a dagger to his younger sibling's heart and never failed to anger him. Ordinarily, he would have told him not to mention it again and reminded him of the numerous reasons why he didn't want it mentioned. He decided against it however as he was almost certain that if it came to it a fair amount of shouting would be involved. Given Brandon's proximity, there was too much chance of the Frontier Brain overhearing and butting in. If there was one subject he didn't want his father to get involved with, it was that one.

Reggie didn't bring it up again, apparently he knew when it was best to let things lie. It was probably the best/only good decision he had made since suggesting this tip.

Ironically, it would have been more bearable if it had been just him and Brandon. It would have been easier to ignore each other if it were just the two of them. With a third party member however things bizarrely became a bit more difficult. Whether he wanted to or not, Reggie ended up acting as a bridge between them, not always intentionally it had to be said. He was someone they would both interact with. Every time that Brandon asked his eldest if he was okay, it was a reminder to Paul that he was no longer alone and that it was bad company as far as he was concerned. Things became even more awkward and jilted when for reasons known only to himself he actually tried to get them all talking together.

That night, Paul found himself once more in charge of fire duty. It was a task that he found suited him much better than having to put up the tents as it allowed him to briefly get away from his father and brother whilst he went to gather wood. It was a few moments of solitude and a chance to breathe which he desperately needed. Around those two, he just felt as if he was suffocating. It was possible to live with Reggie. Up until recently, he'd had precious little choice. It was easier to be alone, no one to tell him what he should or shouldn't be doing and how a nice young man would act or remind him of things he tried so desperately to put behind him.

"Damn them..." He spoke angrily to himself as he picked up a final piece of dead wood. "There's no changing what happened! So why even try?!"

He spent as long as he could realistically afford gathering wood before heading back. If he lingered much longer they would start to wonder just where he had gotten off to. He couldn't bear a potential lecture about the importance of not straying too far away from the campsite. When he got back, all three tents were already set up and ready. Not paying any attention to that, he dumped the wood around where they would eat later on. If he didn't get this thing lit soon, they would start to feel the mountain cold, that was for sure. Already, he'd noticed a drop in temperature as they had continued their climb. They'd all brought warm clothing but Paul couldn't help but wonder if it would be enough for the final few stages of their journey.

The teen found himself struggling with the matchsticks. It was almost as if someone had designed these things so that they were difficult to light. What sort of a maniac would do that? Paul cursed silently under his breath as a third one snapped without so much as the faintest trace of a flicker of flame. By pure chance, he raised his gaze to see Brandon's Dusclops rapidly approaching. The memory of a sudden surge of flame and the smell of his singed clothes and hair flashed before him. Instinctively, he jumped back to ensure he wasn't about to become the latest barbecue the ghost pokemon created.

"No! Stay away you bandage covered midget cyclops!" Paul yelled at the Pokemon as it came over.

"Dus-" It began stretching out its hands.

"I said no! Beat it!" He stamped his foot in an attempt to add some emphasis. "I can light this thing myself."

His father's pokemon hesitated for a moment longer, eyeing him up carefully. Then, without saying anything else, it turned around and rushed over to join the other pokémon. By the looks of things, Brandon was helping with the feeding. Paul watched from a distance, he took care to glance away and pretend to be more occupied by the fire as soon as he felt that one of them might have been looking in his general direction. Ordinarily, he wouldn't have cared. Reggie seemed to genuinely enjoy caring for pokemon and often looked after his brother's team. It was more the Frontier Brain which interested him.

He was right next to Torterra, Paul's first pokemon. Brandon had been there when he had first got it. It had witnessed the Pyramid King smash Reggie's team into the dirt. The man was crouched down in front of the grass-type. They appeared to be looking each other dead in the eyes. Then the strangest thing happened. The Frontier brain reached out his hand and gently stroked the creatures' head. All this happened under his brother's amused gaze.

"You've become strong..." Brandon told the pokemon.

"Torterra..." It muttered quietly.

"Torterra!" Paul called out to it. "Come here!"

Without so much as hesitating, the pokemon did as he said. It came over a little more slowly than it would normally have done, no doubt sensing that he wasn't best pleased with it. Generally, with pokemon he'd had for longer a mere look would suffice to let them know that he was either disappointed or angry with them. His old companion stopped just in front of him. It didn't matter to Paul that his father and brother were watching. With some of his newer team, he might have excused them interacting with the Frontier Brain but with Torterra, it was different. He knew full how his owner felt about the man, so to be anywhere near him was unacceptable:

"Traitor..." Paul spoke quietly but harshly.

"Oh come on!" Reggie called out to him. "Brandon just wanted to see him."

"Why don't you stay the hell out of this?!" The younger brother snapped back.,

Reggie as usual, overlooked the comment. Paul was rather used to it. His brother seldom reacted in a hostile manner to anything, he or pretty much anyone else said to him. He seemed to be able to shrug it off without taking any offence. The youngest was well-aware of his own attitude and reputation and suspected that his sibling probably expected the occasional unpleasant comment or tone. It was how they'd been interacting for a good few years now, anyone who knew them wouldn't have batted an eyelid. After a while, they simply accepted that was how the brothers were, even if Paul suspected they didn't quite understand.

Well… That was true for pretty much everyone save for one person.

Brandon clenched his hands, forming them into fists. He stood up, straightening himself to his full height. For some reason, although he was the physically the shortest of the male Frontier Brains, he always seemed to be much taller to most people, especially when they were on the wrong side of him. Instantly, Paul readied himself. He had a good idea of what had angered the man in such a way and so prepared his counter-arguments. If the Frontier Brain had won their first encounter back at Reggie's and thought he could easily do the same here, he was in for a surprise. _Round two old man…_ Paul thought to himself, truly looking forwards for the opportunity to make things even.

" **Noooo!** " The man's voice bellowed through the mountain. "I don't care how you talk to me but you don't talk to your brother like that!"

"He's my brother. I didn't hear Reggie complain." Paul responded trying his best to stay calm, he knew full well if his temper flared then he would lose just like in Snowpoint.

"You know full well your brother is too good natured for his own good." Brandon reminded his youngest son. "I however am not and I'm telling you now, you cannot talk to people like that!"

"Really? Then why did you teach me to?"

That caused the man to stop for a moment. Good, it was rare that Brandon was struck dumb. He had to press the advantage. Much like his Pokemon, the man prided himself on his ability to take pretty much anything head on and not so much as bat an eyelid. That meant that the few times he did appear to be destabilized, you needed to charge forwards and try to knock him out for the count. He maintained eye contact with the man, something he wasn't entirely used to either. Generally, most people he was angry at shied away from him. Open opposition was not something the Pyramid King had to face all that often, at least not in a situation where he couldn't resolve it with a pokemon battle.

"You always said to stand your ground, to be louder and stronger than everyone else. Isn't that what you told me?!" He continued his yelling.

"You're confusing the courage to stand up to others with fighting everyone who disagrees with you." Brandon shook his head negatively. "I don't condone bullying, boy."

"Really? You seem like a big one to me."

"Mature, Paul." Brandon folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. "I'm your father. That means, like it or not young man, I outrank you until you are a mature adult, like your brother."

At the mention of his name, Reggie looked up concerned. Paul didn't expect much from him. Much less any form of backup in the face of their father. His policies were all neutral and he never intervened in an argument other than requesting that it ceased. Sometimes, the youngest brother wondered if his sibling even listened when they bickered. He certainly seemed to be surprised to have the attention suddenly focused on him. He looked decidedly awkward as his gaze darted between the two of them.

"I'm staying out of this." He declared after a moment literally stepping away.

Paul had been expecting nothing less. As always, he would be left alone to face Brandon. A task he had found himself assigned for years now. He knew that he couldn't trust Reggie to stand up for him or anything else come to that. It hadn't taken him long to figure out that when it came to the Frontier Brain, not many people would chose to back his youngest son. They were either afraid of the man or deluded enough to believe that he always knew what was right or even worse, believed he actually did what was right. It seemed to him that the entirety of his existence with the man had been one of conflict.

"Don't call yourself our father, it's not like you act like one." Paul's voice was quieter but didn't even attempt to hide the rage underneath.

"Decide: either you want me in your life or as you've made perfectly clear several times, you don't." He sounded oddly calm given the situation.

"Want you in my life?! You sent me to counselling!"

It had been an experience Paul would never forget and could never forgive Brandon for subjecting him to. From the outset, the youngest son had made it abundantly clear that he wanted absolutely nothing to do with any form of counselling. Naturally, his father had overruled him and back then, well, Paul hadn't been granted even the faintest glimpse of a choice. The humiliation of being made to sit in some armchair talking to someone who saw dozens of kids a day and whom he doubted cared about much asides their pay-check continued to sting even to this day. He would spend hours, trying to convince the moron that he was "all right" and didn't need (or want) any of this hassle. Socializing difficulties? Trouble coping? Of course not, his issue was with idiots who got in his way and had called him weak.

The only other time he'd found himself faced with what seemed like such complete and utter incomprehension was when he was dealing with his father and he actually expected it from Brandon. After all, not many people went to the Pyramid King for emotional support (least of all his sons) and he certainly didn't charge an hourly rate for it. The Frontier Brain knew how he'd loathed those sessions. He'd listened to the boy beg for them to stop. Honestly, the alternative wasn't so bad. He'd do anything so that he didn't have to be told that "It was alright to be angry..." or that he should try "expressing himself". It made him sick. His father hadn't listened, he never had and never would ever again.

In a way, Paul was almost glad that he'd been forced to go through all that. Not because the counselling had even remotely helped him but because it had allowed him to open his eyes and see just what the man he called "father" was.

"I shouldn't need to remind you that it was that or a two week trip to juvenile hall." The Frontier Brain told him. "Trust me, that's not somewhere you ever want to go."

"Then why didn't you defend me?" He hissed angrily under his breath. "Why did you side with them?"

"A man needs to admit when he's out of his depth." Brandon conceded with a heavy sigh. "That's where I was with you, Paul. What you did to that young man was unforgivable, no matter what he said."

"He had it coming!" Paul muttered under his breath, his voice trembling. "What did he think he could just say all those things and I wasn't going to do anything? If you're going to start mouthing off, you've got to be able to back it up with actions. You're the one who taught me that."

"I never told you to do that! I told you to defend yourself and others when they were threatened." The man looked away for a moment, his gaze lost to the sky before turning back to look at his son. "Hurting others because of a comment is never right. No matter how hurtful it may be to us or someone else."

Someone else… For some reason which Paul couldn't quite place his finger on, those two words were like an insult, not to him but to the person in question. He remembered feeling almost exactly like this a good few years ago, back in a time he preferred not to remember as his father had yelled at him for a good twenty minutes for breaking a young man's nose. He'd been wondering all the time just why the man couldn't or wouldn't understand. He should have been supporting him not scolding him. All that time as he'd stood there not understanding, he'd felt the anger building up inside of him. Ir was a rage he had very quickly realized he couldn't control.

Right now, that same anger had just one thing to say, because it was the only thing that seemed to matter:

"She was my mother!"

"She was my wife!"

"And she wouldn't want either of you to bicker like this." Reggie stood between the two of them. "Let's stop this, hm? Before someone says something they'll really regret."

The eldest brother stood there for a moment as an angry silence hung between them. Whilst he might have been able to act as a barrier, there was little that he could do to stop the cold glare Paul decided to give his father. The man didn't so much as blink. His gaze was one of contempt as opposed to anger. That was all he seemed to have for his two sons. The one thing that Reggie did seem to possess was the ability to become a rather remarkable human shield. So long as he stood there, neither of the two of them were inclined to continue their fight. Perhaps that was because the big guns had just been drawn and for the moment, they both dreaded what unleashing them would potentially mean.

It was Brandon who backed off first. He turned around, no doubt pretending to have to check one of the tent pegs. Paul opened his mouth, preparing to let fly yet another sting but caught sight of Reggie's stern look and thought better of it. Usually, his brother was a pushover in terms of discipline. If the guy ever had kids, they would have him wrapped around their pinky in little to no time at all. There were a few matters he took a firm stance on however and his younger brother had discovered to his cost that it was best not to push him too far where they were concerned. Instead, he turned around, giving the Frontier Brain one last glare before heading back to the fire. He could vaguely make out Reggie's disheartened sigh but took little to no notice of it.

The rest of the evening was a blur. Largely because once more, it went by in complete and utter silence. It was the same quiet that followed a storm, where the anger still lingered and the one person who hadn't been involved in the fight was too afraid to speak least he start up another round of shouting. That suited Paul just fine. He paradoxically had a lot and nothing to say to his father at the same time. Silence, somehow managed to do both for him.

He was quick to bed that night. Retreating into his tent almost as soon as he had finished dinner. Outside, everything remained quiet. Apparently the earlier argument had been enough to convince both of his other family members that discussions were not the order of the day. That suited him just fine. The sooner they could quit all of this phoney business and get back to not having to pretend they cared, the better. The lad was still angry as he lay there, it was something he couldn't shake off. He closed his eyelids, trying to force himself into a sleep he wasn't quite ready for.

Five more days… He could last five more days… Couldn't he?


	5. Day three

_**Sorry for the slightly longer wait. I've been busy. This also happens to be the longest chapter so far (about twice the size of the rest). In fact, it may be the single longest chapter I have ever written for a Fanfiction. In any case, I hope you enjoy and thanks once more for the reviews.**_

 _ **/**_

Day three had come around. Hurrah! Reggie found himself increasingly wishing that this hell on Earth he had invented for himself would end.

In his mind, he felt as if he could pretty much see how the next few days were going to pan out. His father and brother would stay together. From time to time, they would bicker maybe even fight a little. Ultimately however they would put up with each other. Not because they were family and wanted to preserve that special link between themselves which existed but rather that at the end of it all, both wanted to be able to depart from the other's company knowing that they would never have to see or hear from the other again. It had been what almost anyone could have predicted was going to happen and represented every single reason why this plan of his was doomed to failure from the very start.

He was under no illusions as he stepped out of the tent and greeted the rather crisp morning that his father and Paul would be like an ursaring with a sore head. Both would still be seething after last night's encounter and despite having had the chance to sleep it all off, they probably wouldn't have calmed down all that much. He knew that their rage could sometimes linger for days, occasionally weeks. As far as apologies or forgiveness went, you could forget it. That meant that he was in for some fun.

Leaving his tent, he found his father already by a small fire. He was busy with that morning's breakfast. Come what may, Brandon would do what it took to make sure they had what they needed. He always did. The man didn't stop because of a fight. It didn't matter what happened around him, he prided himself on being able to weather out even the worst of storms. His eldest son wasn't completely sure that was a good thing. People who couldn't always read others very well, people like Paul, they didn't understand, they mistook the coldness he used to protect himself as a lack of all emotion. Sometimes, Reggie was pretty sure that the Pyramid King himself was fooled by it.

"Hey..." He spoke softly to the man, eager to judge just how bad a mood he was in. "Good morning. Did you sleep well?"

"Well enough." He replied, gruff as always.

"Camping not really you're thing, eh?" Reggie asked settling next to him.

"No." The man responded his gaze fixed upon the pan for a moment. "I prefer it actually. Reminds me of my youth..."

Brandon's youth, a subject he knew precious little about. Well, he knew a lot and he knew next to nothing both at the same time. He could recall pestering his father for tales of his adventures when both he and Paul were young, more often than not, the man would give in and tell them. He could remember his little brother hanging on the man's every word and practically crying when the story had ended and the Pyramid King told them that it was time for bed. On the other hand, not once could he remember the man mentioning his parents or what other probably more sedate parts of his life had been like. He never explained why exactly but his answer was always along the lines of "It's of no interest" or "It's in the past".

It was a topic which needed to be treaded carefully around. One foot in the wrong place and his father's mood would only worsen. As such, he chose a subject which curiously enough didn't seem to bother the man quite as much.

"With mom?"

"After a while." The man nodded slowly in agreement.

"Did she like camping?"

"Yes..."

The man's voice trailed off for a moment as a soft but sad smile appeared on the man's face. Brandon didn't speak much about their mother. He would if you asked him about her but few actually knew he was married. True, the man still wore his ring but if anyone noticed, they rarely brought it up. It was true that Brandon wasn't the easiest person to ask a personal question to, something about his demeanor seemed to discourage others from doing so. With his eldest son or few friends though, you could safely talk about his marriage so long as you knew what subjects to avoid. "That night" being the big one which was best not brought up. They sat there for a moment before to Reggie's surprise, a gentle laugh escaped his lips. It wasn't that the Pyramid King didn't laugh, he just didn't do it much any more. Even though, at one time, apparently he'd possessed a decent sense of humor.

His eldest son eyed him cautiously, aware that an explanation for his outburst would likely follow imminently. Nostalgia no doubt, that was one of the few things which Reggie knew would get the Frontier Brain chuckling. He had to wait a few moments before his father told him:

"Some nights she would just lie there, looking up at the stars and wouldn't even bother with a tent."

It was hard for the Frontier Brain's eldest son to imagine that. Like it or not, his memories of his mother were coming increasingly faint as time went by and attempting to picture your parents young was always a difficult challenge. The youngest he thought that he could remember seeing either them was a photo from their wedding night. The events Brandon was referencing pre-dated that by quite a few years.

Even thinking about their mother in such a comparatively abstract manner for him was enough to cause him to relapse into memories of another time. He could still hear the woman's soft laugh as she sat out on their old porch watching her family. She always seemed to wear a smile. It didn't matter what the weather was doing or how bad things had appeared to be, she would always smile. That was what seemed to be marked the most in his mind, her kind and gentle smile. Always willing to listen, seemingly never angry… What he wouldn't give to go back to those days. He lowered his head, unable to stop the memories from rushing back. It wasn't that he ever tried to forget them, far from it but simply when he got started, he found it nearly impossible to stop.

There was a familiar feeling which began to sting his eyes. He knew it all too well, that sensation which came along with the knowledge that those times were long gone and he could do nothing but watch as they slipped ever further away. He tried to hide it from his father. The man's reactions to his sons' sorrows had been mixed in the past. Naturally, when they had been young, he'd had a lot of time for them although as far as Reggie could remember, he'd always had some trouble figuring out just what he was supposed to do about it. As time had passed however, he seemed to have increasingly less time for their sadness. It was all in the past. Yes, he was right about that much but still, his eldest son couldn't help but wonder if the man realized just how difficult it was for his sons, especially for Paul who had been so young, to put it all behind them like that.

A strong arm placed itself on his shoulder. He turned to face his father. The man wasn't even looking at him, instead, his gaze simply stared ahead of him into the flickering flames. The man's expression was impossible to decipher. He looked preoccupied, as if the presence of his son had only barely registered.

"Chin up boy."

It was a clear order and one which Reggie couldn't help but obey. He hated it when his father called him "boy", not quite as much as Paul did but not far off. To be fair, Brandon wasn't really one for names. Even with their mother, whom his son knew he had loved dearly, he seldom used her name opting for terms of endearment instead. With his sons, it was different, depending on word he used, they knew instantly where they stood with him. Paul was referred to as 'boy' a lot, as far as he was concerned that was never a good thing. There was little doubt with anyone that it wasn't the Frontier Brain's most affectionate way of addressing his youngest. Where the eldest was concerned however, he was inclined not to take offence.

His father was right, there was no sense crying about such things, especially not now. He had literally a thousand things to worry about, the past (at least that part of it) unfortunately wasn't one of them. With the back of his hand, he wiped away the tears, hoping to banish them for the rest of the trip. Neither of his companions would have very much sympathy, he knew that for a fact. For the time being, he would have to be strong. If that meant being cold like them, then so be it. He allowed himself to become quiet, contenting himself with watching the flickering flames as he helped his father prepare their breakfast.

Curiously, Paul surfaced of his own accord that day, just as they were serving the food. Either he had been awoken by the sound of them getting things ready or had been lying awake and simply wanted to hold off coming out to see them. Reggie could have believed either. His only question was what his sibling's strategy for the following day was going to be. Would he go back to avoiding their father like the plague and remaining silent or would it be all guns blazing as it had been last night? Naturally, he silently prayed for the former aware that it was probably the best that he could realistically hope for right now.

Reggie watched his sibling carefully, ready to intervene should he show any signs of trying to start up a fight with their father. Paul certainly started well, casting the man a freezing cold glare. Thankfully, it was only a second before he simply picked up his plate of food and settled at the opposite end of the fire. Brandon's angry gaze rested upon him for a moment before he too seemingly decided to let things lie and went about eating his food. The eldest sibling let out an internal sigh of relief, he wasn't sure he could have faced yet more fighting this early in the morning.

For once, he didn't mind the painful silence. He found that it allowed him a chance to think. If things continued the way they had started out, he had his doubts about whether any of them would be able to last a week. He was almost certain that Brandon and Paul couldn't be trusted to even pretend to get along. Every word they spoke was either charged with anger or only just managing to suppress it. As such, he quickly dismissed any idea he might have had about the time and proximity causing the two of them to eventually open up and remember what they had once been. That didn't leave him with too many options if he wanted to avoid having to call all this off so that they could all go home with their limbs still attached.

The most obvious thing he could do was try and get some conversation flowing between father and son. Whilst it might have sounded simple put like that, it was almost the exact opposite. For starters, it would require finding a subject for them to talk about which wouldn't lead to a fight. Short of talking about the weather, Reggie remained stumped. Paul especially had a knack for managing to turn pretty much anything with anyone into an argument. For a man who really should know better, Brandon could be quite easily baited into his youngest son's squabbles and sometimes would seize the opportunity to start one up himself by reminding the boy of his failings in a certain area. Which seemed to be legion as far as the Pyramid King was concerned. Of course, the rest of the Pokemon breeder's family could both quite easily ignore him all together or call him out on trying to get them to talk before turning on him.

Actually, the more Reggie thought about it the more he was impressed at how few fights they'd started since coming out here. Ignoring each other was an achievement in itself.

His second option was simply to talk to them. Individually of course. Attempting to have a sensible conversation about their relationship with the two of them within earshot of each other was a recipe for disaster. This would mean that he would have to find a time when both of them were alone and confront them then. With Brandon, that might not be very difficult. Getting him to see reason would be the challenge. His past experiences with Paul had left the man's nerves frayed badly; Reggie was fully aware that his father had practically given up hope with the boy. Maybe that was the first thing that he would need to have to change. If neither of them believed it was possible then they were unlikely to put any real effort into it.

Of course his little brother was another kettle of fish altogether. Whilst he could generally trust the Pyramid King to keep relatively calm and not bite his head off when he mentioned their family, the same wasn't true for his sibling. Paul could be ever so touchy at times and experience had taught him that his responses often weren't proportionate. You were always on thin ice around the lad and the waters certainly were freezing when the said ice broke and you fell through. Still, Reggie knew better than most that he had better be very careful when he decided to confront the boy. He would have to wait for a good opportunity.

With a battle plan now set up, Reggie remained diplomatically silent until they were back on their way. Once more, the rest of his family was staying almost religiously silent. Brandon led the way. Despite the fact that he was far less familiar with this region than his sons were, the truth was that even Paul trusted his judgement and experience. He was an outdoors-man by nature, used to having to explore ruins no one had set foot in for millennia. That and the fact that he had been on the road, travelling around for much of his life meant that no matter what the grudges they might have held against him, his two sons were inclined to follow his judgement.

The terrain was gradually becoming steeper, making progress increasingly difficult. It was rare for Reggie to come up this far, generally, he made a policy of avoiding potentially dangerous areas such as these. Already some of the cliffs and drops he'd seen were enough to make his head spin. Paul and Brandon weren't fazed by such things however or if they were neither of them let on to it. They seemed to embrace the challenge. Either that or they didn't want to appear weak in front of the other one. Were things different between them, Reggie imagined that he could have used that rivalry and had them both playing off of each other. As it was, he trusted that it would only lead to a potentially vicious fight.

They chose to stop for lunch on a ledge. They'd already climbed quite high and the view they had wasn't half bad. As he sat there eating some of the food, Reggie couldn't help but admire the scenery.

"Man… You can almost see Veilstone from here." He spoke more vocalizing his thoughts that actually trying to start up a conversation.

"I've never been up this far." Paul confessed looking out over the view. "I wonder what it's like from the top?"

"I bet you can see most of the region." Brandon muttered looking out over his surroundings.

"You can do that anyway from the Battle Pyramid." Paul reminded him glancing over towards the north and Snowpoint which lay somewhere out there.

"True-" Brandon conceded before shaking his head negatively. "-but it's not the same. Out here, you've got the fresh mountain air, the smell of the pines, that wind on your face. It isn't a bad feeling at all, wouldn't you say lad?"

Paul didn't reply, instead, he looked out into the horizon for a few moments. Brandon didn't seem to take offence at the lack of a response however apparently recognizing that the youngest was simply chewing his words over. Reggie also opted to remain silent, savouring a moment's rest and the taking the chance to take another few swigs of water. It was strangely calm up here. They were well off of the beaten track here. If they bumped into anyone, it would be mountaineers. He understood what Brandon meant as she sat there, just listening to the sounds of the wilderness which surrounded them.

"Have you been up here before?" Paul asked eventually cutting through the silence.

"A few times… Never reached the top though." The man informed them. "I came here with your mother – must have been in my early twenties – back when we were challenging the gyms. Can't say it's the region I know the best though…"

"You lived in Veilstone for like two years!" Paul reminded him, a fact which no doubt Brandon hadn't forgotten.

"Two years teaching ancient history to some college students." The man reminded his youngest son. "It was hardly the grand tour, I didn't get to do as much exploration as I would have liked and as you know, I prefer being able to stretch my legs."

"We'd noticed..." Reggie gave his brother a knowing look hoping it would suffice to avoid another fight.

Those years in Veilstone were so far away, he doubted that Paul would be able to remember much if anything about them. They were in the days long before Battle Pyramids and Battle Frontiers. Even in his mind, the idea that the family had once lived in the town seemed a little alien to him. Sure, he remembered chunks of it but much of it felt like it was a dream of some kind. He'd gone to visit their old house several times, Maylene had even been able to pull a few strings and get him inside it once by asking its new owners. Much had changed but some parts hadn't. It was strange but what had stuck the most in his mind was the fireplace. Those cold Sinnoh nights, his father would go out and fetch some wood from the garden. He could see his little brother, only just beginning to crawl around on the carpet under the loving and tentative gaze of their mother. The rest of the house was largely a blank.

He eyed Paul carefully. Nostalgia was a dangerous place for the youngest brother to be. Brandon would know this of course and hopefully wouldn't dive too deep into the past. For the moment, he seemed content to answer questions as opposed to actually bringing things up. Smart. With any luck it would be enough.

"Then you left..." Paul continued his voice level and calm.

"I left twice." Brandon reminded his youngest son, not dancing around the subject. "Which time are you referring to?"

"When you left me and Reggie." Oh well… There went that friendly discussion.

"Because you asked me to." The answer was plain and simple. "As I recall, you seemed to think that Kanto was too close."

"-but when you came back..." Paul ignored the man's reply. "It wasn't for us, it was for Regigigas."

"Ah, so you heard about _that_."

Brandon's tone spoke for itself. Of course, neither Paul nor Reggie had missed the commotion that the legendary's reawakening had caused. They had found themselves in Snowpoint at the time. When news of four extremely powerful pokemon coming towards the city at an alarmingly rapid speed and destroying everything in their path, the two brothers had naturally prepared to evacuate. It had only been when secondary reports about the Battle Pyramid going down had come in that they had put two and two together and gotten Brandon. Fortunately, before either of them had had enough time to really decide on a course of action, the evacuation had been called off. All was alright it would seem. Paul had left an hour later, heading south towards Sunnyshore and his next gym battle.

Reggie for his part had made the effort of calling his father to make sure everything was alright. Things were very vague on the ground and nobody seemed to clear on what had happened or who had been involved. Brandon had been evasive, assuring him that all was well. Just some poachers apparently. He'd looked a little shaken but not enough to worry his son any more than that. Naturally, it hadn't taken much for the pokemon breeder to associate the local legend of Regigigas with both his father's presence in the first place and what had happened. What he didn't know was that Paul had also made the same assumption. In a way it was hardly surprising, the lad wasn't an idiot after all.

"I won't lie. I came for Regigigas." The Frontier Brain answered after a few moments.

"Figured as much..." Paul muttered disgusted.

"You either want me in your life or you don't." Brandon snapped finally growing irritated. "Make up your mind but don't hold your choice against me!"

"So what? Your plan to capture it backfired?" It was an accusation more than a question.

" **No.** " The Pyramid King raised his voice, his pride hurt by the accusation that he could be so stupid. "I've been hunting legends since before you were in diapers, boy. I know what I am doing. It was Pokemon Hunter J who awoke it."

"Pokemon Hunter J?!" Reggie repeated a little startled by the revelation. "Brandon, she means serious business. She makes it onto every Crimewatch we have in Sinnoh."

"And in Kanto." Brandon said casting his gaze to the north once more. "She is a piece of work and every bit as dangerous as they say."

"You took her on?!" Paul's eyebrows raised along with his voice. "And made it out alive?"

"Of course!" The Pyramid King snapped in anger before hesitating a moment and adding in a quieter voice.

"Well then spit it out!" It was clear by now that the youngest son had once more lost his temper. Although for once Reggie couldn't figure out what had caused him to snap. "Come on! I want to hear it from you! How did the great King of the Battle Pyramid take on Pokemon Hunter J and come out on top?!"

To Brandon's credit for some reason neither of his sons could figure out, he never lied to them. As in _never_. It didn't matter how much the truth hurt, he would just say it. It was amazing how hearing a tale first hand could cause him to realize just what censors were in place in their day to day lives. Evidently, somebody, somewhere had decided that the general public would be better off not knowing about Regigigas and the three golem's rampage. To be fair, the eldest brother was inclined to believe that concealing the information was intended to be for their own protection. In all likelihood, the last thing that anyone wanted was a repeat of the carnage as some would-be trainer woke the pokemon up again in an attempt to capture it.

Unlike when they were children, the Pyramid King didn't tell his story as if it was one. He didn't try to amuse them. He could have been sitting in a police station, recounting the events to some officers. It gave the whole thing a certain cold and distant tone to it for someone who had been personally present. He cut out some of the details, which no doubt would have taken him too long to go into. Instead simply giving them the basics. Even when he spoke about how he had been struck by Pokemon Hunter J's gun and turned to stone, he sounded like a man who was reading from an article in a paper he had been reading. A little more care and concern in telling his two sons, wouldn't have gone a miss in Reggie's opinion. The least he could of done was something like assure them that it hadn't hurt or that he'd had a feeling that he'd be alright in the end. Instead, it sounded to his eldest child like he'd been willing to throw his life away quite easily and with little regard to those he would be leaving behind.

This left Reggie a little shaken, up until that moment, he'd had no idea just how close his father and the family by extension had come to disaster. Simply ignoring the trauma of losing their last parent for a moment (something he hoped even Paul would suffer from), from a purely practical point of view it would have been a nightmare. As he'd already pointed out, they needed Brandon. True, he now had a job, that gave them a certain stability and the possibility to stay afloat but if Paul had the slightest inkling of just how much his father had chipped in, both financially and logistically over the years, he'd probably have a heart attack. For the moment, the eldest son was going to be angry at the man for holding such information back. Instead, he forced himself to remain calm, choosing to assume that it had been for their benefit, so as not to worry them or because of some sort of confidentiality issue with the police that he hadn't brought it up until this point and had always been so evasive.

Paul however, didn't seem to be as troubled by that aspect of things. Almost a soon as Brandon had finished, he cut in with his own question. Simply by the tone in his voice, Reggie knew that they were in for yet another example of the shining human being that his little brother seemed to be striving to become:

"So you're saying: you got turned into a statue, along with the regis and Regigigas restored you to flesh and bone?"

"That's exactly what happened." The Pyramid King nodded once.

"Damn shame." Paul got up from his seat on a rock. "If that pathetic excuse for a legend had any sense, it would have left you there."

"Language…" Brandon's voice wasn't angry so much as an exasperated realization that his requests were falling on deaf ears and he was now bordering on the giving up all hope.

Reggie had opted to remain silent in order to avoid fuelling his brother's rage any further. When

the boy tried to storm off, experience had taught him that more often that not it was best to get in his way. A few moments alone would allow him to blow off some steam and cool off enough for them to be able to almost sensibly talk to him. The eldest son watched his sibling walk off, putting some distance between himself and the rest of his family. He wouldn't go far, only out of earshot. Thankfully, no matter how enraged he was, the lad managed to keep enough of his senses not to wander off completely out of sight where he could potentially get separated from them and lost.

He watched the boy for a moment as he climbed higher before turning back to Brandon. The Pyramid King's gaze remained fixed only on the horizon. There was some sorrow there which naturally Reggie could only understand too well. This wasn't the first time that Paul had essentially wished that his father was dead to the man's face. It was a harsh sentiment by any standards, generally the sort of thing he really wished his sibling would keep to himself. Of course, whether he actually meant it or not remained to be seen. As odd as it might sound, Reggie sincerely hoped that the words were meant only to wound their father. The alternative wasn't something that the pokemon breeder even wanted to contemplate.

He would have paid money to be able to get inside of his father's head sometimes. Perhaps he could ask Anabel for some pointers on mind reading. If provoking him was what Paul was trying to do, then he succeeded in so far as he periodically got the man's temper to flare up. Just why the youngest brother persisted in doing this was beyond Reggie, it wasn't as if it ever ended well for him. The Pyramid King was someone who had such a degree of control over himself that it was almost impossible to tell if you'd actually managed to hurt him. That meant that for all of his attacks, almost none of them had the desired effect. For the most part, Brandon seemed to be wise enough to ignore the boy. When he did fight back however it was almost always the youngest son who ended up limping away from the fight (metaphorically of course, as far as Reggie could remember, the Frontier Brain had never raised a hand against either of his sons, no matter what they had done). Despite all that, it seemed impossible that anyone could be so cold as to not be affected by the way that his youngest treated him.

He was disturbed from his thoughts when Brandon let out a heavy sigh. He got to his feet a little stiffly. His attention remained fixed in the distance for a few moments. Unsure what else to do, his eldest son was about to speak. It would have been the same thing he almost always said at times like this. A defence or maybe an excuse for his brother: he didn't mean it, he's just a got a lot on his plate, Paul's a little difficult at the moment… All sentences he'd spoken dozens of times. Brandon, ironically beat him to the punch. The man's next words shocked Reggie.

"He's not a bad kid… Just doesn't know what to do with himself." The Frontier Brain turned around, sticking his hands in his pockets as he went. "I can understand that..."

His son said nothing, too surprised to be able to respond. Up until that point, Brandon had _always_ held it against his youngest for the way that he acted. True, he'd been more understanding at the beginning when the departure of their mother was still fresh in all of their minds. The same couldn't be said however for when the years had rolled past and his anger had shifted from simply being directed at his father to turning on the rest of the world as well. He'd blamed he boy for not being able to control himself and put things behind him. Called him a stubborn and selfish fool to his face when he'd lashed out at those notionally trying to help him. Practically disowned him when his youngest had spat in his face and told him he wanted him out of his life. This was the first time that he'd even claimed to be able to understand what was going through his son's mind.

Reggie stood standing there, watching as his father walked off. He wanted to speak. Wanted to ask him just what he meant but something prevented him from doing so. Instead, he turned back to the horizon. The rest of the world seemed so far away when they were up here… An ice cold wind caused the young man to shiver. Letting out a sigh, he slung his bag over his back and started going after the rest of his crumbling family. For a moment there, just a few seconds, he'd actually thought that they might have been getting somewhere.

It was later that evening when they finally settled down for the night. They'd reached an altitude which lead the air to be down right cold once the sun went down. Thankfully, they were prepared. They continued with their usual arrangement of Paul getting the wood whilst Brandon and Reggie set up camp. It was once they'd set up the second tent that the eldest son turned to his father.

"Brandon-" He started to speak.

"Go on." The man instructed gruffly. "-But you're wasting your time."

He simply nodded once. There was little doubt in the young man's mind that his father was right. Still, he needed to try.

Getting up, he moved carefully but quietly through the rocky landscape to a small bit of woodland where he knew his brother would be. Paul took a disproportionate amount of time to gather wood. Reggie bet he could have done it in half the time or less and that wasn't because he was older and stronger. Neither him nor Brandon were under any illusions as to just why it took the youngest so darned long. He used it as an opportunity to escape them. Up until this point, they had seen no point in confronting him about it or trying to change things. They figured he needed his time alone. It did present one of the only chances however for him to talk to his brother alone and out of earshot of their father. He prayed, that with just the two of them, his sibling would be a little more open. He usually was: as in he ignored him as opposed to using one profanity or another to tell him to shut up.

When he found his brother however, he found himself stopping. He wasn't too sure what he'd been expecting. The lad to simply be sitting around on some tree stump angrily moping about the injustices in his life? Instead, Paul sat on a fallen tree, he had one leg folded allowing him to rest a drawing pad against himself. He sat there, sketching something out carefully. Somewhat taken back, he watched in silence for a few moments. His brother would draw a few things, occasionally pause to contemplate his work, before erasing some of the lines and starting anew.

Finally, after a few moments, he broke his cover walking out from behind the trees. His brother was either still oblivious to his presence or simply pretending not to notice.

"Paul..." He spoke softly finally drawing his brother's attention. The look of irritation was plain to see on his face.

"If you've come here to get me to apologize..." He began.

"No. No." Reggie raised his hands in mock defence. "I know better than to try to get you to do anything, especially apologize."

His brother looked away angrily. He supposed that the one good thing about Paul's constant moodiness was that it made him very easy to read, unlike their father. There was almost no room for doubt that he wanted to be left alone out here for a while and didn't appreciate the company. Ironic, with night slowly falling… There had been a time when his brother had been terrified of the dark and pleaded for the company of either his brother or his parents. What Reggie wouldn't have given to be able to go back to those simpler days.

Despite his brother's clear coldness, the pokemon breeder walked over, sitting on the tree next to him. When he got no immediate objection, he relaxed a little bit internally. If he hadn't been told to go away, then it meant that his sibling was willing to listen to some of what he had to say or perhaps had something on his chest that he wanted to get rid off himself. They sat there in silence for a few moments, listening to the sounds of the wilderness. Paul's gaze remained fixed upon the paper in his hands. He looked at it blankly, no longer drawing but using it as a distraction to try and forget the presence of his sibling.

"I didn't know you drew." Reggie spoke out eventually, breaking the silence.

"Sometimes." The younger brother grumbled. "Clears my head."

"Mind if I have a look?"

His sibling hesitated for a few moments before cautiously holding out the notepad. Reggie took it carefully, handling it as if it were made out of glass. It was comparatively rare for his brother to entrust any of his personal belongings to anyone. He'd never been all that material but his few possessions were things which he guarded preciously. Heaven forbid anyone damage something which belonged to him. His gaze remained riveted on his brother as he began to flick through the pages. It was obvious this wasn't a spontaneous outburst of creativity from his sibling but rather something that he had been doing for quite some time now. They represented people and pokemon for the most part and were mostly all sketches. A few had some color added to them.

Reggie was actually surprised by how good they were. It was odd but this was the first time that he had been made aware that Paul was even remotely artistically inclined. It simply didn't seem compatible with otherwise cold and tumultuous personality. Yet there was no doubt in his brother's mind as he contemplated the works that this was something which he cared about and was invested in.

"These are really good." He told his sibling after a couple of minutes. "Who taught you?"

"I taught myself." Paul replied taking the book back.

"I didn't know you were into that sort of thing." Reggie replied hesitating for a moment, wondering if his brother could remember who else had liked to draw.

"I'm not… It's just something I do." Paul folded his arms across his chest. "It's not like I go to galleries or anything."

"Mom used to draw."

It was always dangerous bringing their mother up around Paul. Brandon could usually take the chance seeing as his youngest seemed to loathe him no matter what he did but even he was careful. He only mentioned her in passing and never went into much detail. Usually, just stating that she had been somewhere at the time such as when he had mentioned her travelling through Sinnoh with him. More often that not, bringing her up even in a good and relatively harmless way would result in the youngest member of the family becoming hostile and a confrontation. In a way, Reggie could understand, he didn't want to be reminded that she was no longer there but equally it made it difficult for those around him not to talk about her.

You had to be careful if you chose to do so. Reggie had taken a chance and hoped it wasn't about to backfire in his face. Paul was taking his time in responding. Hopefully, it would be the good memories and not the bitter resentment which prevailed over him.

"I honestly can't remember that." He spoke quietly after a few moments.

"Yeah..." Reggie recalled with a faint smile. "She used to draw everything, you, me, Brandon, the pokemon, flowers… She painted too."

"Professionally?" Paul raised an eyebrow curiously.

"Nah." The eldest brother shook his head. "Just for fun. You should ask Brandon to show you some of the stuff she did. Unless he's changed, he should carry some of it with him in that journal of his."

"As if I'd ever ask for anything from him!" Paul snapped angrily at the mere suggestion.

"Seeing as their mom's, they're not really his, are they?" His brother tried to put it to him in another light. "They belong to the family."

That seemed to be enough to at least get him to think. That was always the difficult part with Paul. With his automatic response when something displeased him being to become aggressive, it made it nearly impossible to have sensible discussions about certain subjects with the lad. His family would be a prime example of one such subject. The fact that he hadn't immediately started shouting at the mention of their mother gave his elder brother at least some vague hope. It was clear that the suggestion tempted him, a fair deal. Unlike the rest of his family, the youngest's memories of his mother were a good deal fainter than normal given his age at the time. Therefore, anything connecting to her became a precious artefact, a connection to a past left behind long ago. Of course, that lead to the big issue which was that it was Brandon who had most, if not all of their mother's stuff.

It wasn't that he had hoarded it but rather that with Reggie only having a modest sized house for both him and Paul to share in Veilstone, their father had been the only one with enough room to be able to keep most of it. The few times he'd asked, Brandon had always been willing to let him look around. Granted, the man didn't like to hang around his wife's stuff but his son suspected that was largely because it brought back some painful memories. There was no doubt that he took care of it, protecting it from the elements and dusting the numerous items. Whether or not he actually went through it when he was alone was another matter and one which his eldest couldn't answer.

"Why are you doing this Reggie?" His brother asked after a few moments more of silence.

"Because I think it's what's right." He saw no point in lying or dancing around the truth and so told it to him straight. "We're a family little bro. You can't change that and neither can Brandon."

"We don't need _him_..." Paul practically spat the last word. "We're better off without him in fact."

"We need him." Reggie made an effort to remain calm despite his sibling's gradually growing anger. "Paul look how far things have gone without him… Like it or not, he's our father. I know you blame him for what happened but it wasn't his fault. Can't you see that now? There's nothing he could have done-"

"He didn't have to lie!"

The angry words were loud enough to convince Reggie to stand down. He'd overstepped the boundaries and there was no point in trying to reason with him when he was like that. Instead, his brother simply lowered his head but said nothing. No use in provoking him any further or in trying to apologize. Ironically, saying "sorry" tended to cause the lad's temper to flare up even worse. The sympathy of others was something which Paul neither appreciated nor understood and would push away without fail. So he left him there, aware that time was the best cure for his brother's foul temper and moodiness. He would rejoin them when he was ready and no sooner.

His father had succeeded in setting up the camp. The man cast his son a curious glance. The lad's expression spoke for itself. He could swear he saw the "I told you so" on the tip of Brandon's tongue but thankfully, it didn't come. Instead, he just turned away and went back to preparing food for the pokemon. Reggie joined him but neither spoke.

The silence continued on into the evening. The eldest brother was gradually becoming accustomed to it so that it was now white noise as opposed to the oppressing and painful experience it had been up until then. It was quite an accomplishment to stay as quiet as these two were for quiet so long. Granted, neither of them were exactly social butterflies. Scott was often complaining that Brandon could be a little more accommodating where challengers were concerned and the Frontier Brain's social circle could almost be counted on the fingers of one hand. The least said about his youngest sibling the better. Both, on all accounts seemed to have a knack for leaving a somewhat bitter taste in peoples' mouths and for saying exactly what was on their mind no matter how hurtful it might be to another. Despite that, Reggie found it hard to imagine that going for this length of time with only hostilities wasn't begging to tire even them.

Just as he was musing about whether or not the two of them would ever say more than a few angry words to each other over the course of a week, his phone went off. In truth, he'd almost forgotten he had it on him. It was his personal number, all of his work was currently being routed through Maylene who had very obligingly agreed to help him with his somewhat bizarre predicament. As such, he wasn't all that surprised to see that it was she who was calling him. On an amusing note, he wasn't the only one to be startled by the sudden ringing as both Paul and Brandon jumped to their feet, battle ready. Thankfully, both seemed to calm down quickly when they realized what it was.

"Sorry about this guys." Reggie replied answering his phone. No he wasn't, talking to a human being without having to worry about the potential outbreak of world war Pyramid family was a welcome release. "Hey there Maylene!"

"Maylene?!" Paul raised his voice markedly prompting his sibling to cover up the speaker so that the gym leader couldn't hear him.

"For once Paul..." Reggie spoke in a hushed yet angry tone. "Just shut it, okay?!"

"Who's Maylene?" Brandon questioned looking to both of his sons.

"The gym leader of Veilstone city." The eldest replied eager to explain to stop the barrage of questions he could sense coming.

"Please… She's a second-rate-"

He shot his brother an icy cold glare before getting to his feet. There was no sense trying to talk close to Brandon and Paul. For one, his little brother was sure to make himself a pain. Secondly, his father was bound to ask half a dozen questions and expect answers, regardless of whether or not he was on the phone. Thirdly, he simply wanted some privacy. He couldn't think that this would be anything particularly serious but all the same. There were some matters that he would rather the rest of his family remained unaware of or at least stayed out of.

Even as he was walking away however, he couldn't help but catch a bit of the exchange between Paul and Brandon. It sort of made sense somewhere along the line that the only time those two would talk would be to make his life a misery. Ordinarily, he would have shrugged it off, not being the type of guy to take offence at much but there were some things which he found himself almost completely unable to ignore.

"She's a complete disgrace the the gym leaders!" Paul informed his father after he had inquired as to just what the gym leader of Veilstone was like. "Seriously, a trainer with a magikarp could take her down!"

"So, I see..." The Pyramid King replied.

"Please tell me she's not the one you left your keys with!" Paul called out to him.

"None of your business!" Reggie called back irritated but not about to lie.

"You might as well have handed them over to some hobo on the street! They would probably have been safer!" _Breathe_ … Reggie told himself, just ignore him.

"Paul, I'm warning you!" He couldn't help but call back.

"Knowing your brother, he's probably got a thing for her..." Brandon informed the younger sibling.

"I do not! Now both of you shut up or else I'm done cooking you dinner!"

A surprisingly effective threat it would seem as both were promptly silent. Evidently the prospect of losing the talents of their best cook was enough to convince both of them that they had better be quiet. He had no way of knowing just how much Maylene had overheard but hoped it wasn't so much. He knew better than most that she could be sensitive. It was something he suspected that the young woman would grow out of when she had a little more experience as a gym leader and hopefully some more confidence to boot. Given what he'd told her about his family, he hoped that she knew not to take it personally. Paul and Brandon were abrasive at the best of times.

He had become convinced that by the end of this darned week, he was going to be either grey or insane, quite possibly both if father and brother continued to try their hardest to make themselves nuisances. He continued to put some distance between himself and them. Not too much, just enough so that they wouldn't hear absolutely everything that was said and that they couldn't chip into the discussion themselves. Finally, he stopped a few yards away. He could hear that his friend was still on the line and exercising a laudable amount of patience.

"Sorry about that." He apologized to her.

"No problem. Sounds like you're having fun." Came the amused voice from the other end.

"You have no idea..." He let out an exasperated sigh, resting his head against a nearby rock.

"How are things going?" She asked him.

"Let me put it this way… If you told me my house had burned down, the destruction of my life would be pretty much complete."

"That good, huh?"

He'd asked Maylene to give him a call about mid-week just to ensure that everything was alright. On Veilstone's end he couldn't imagine what could have gone wrong but you never could tell. It was more to give him someone other than his father and brother to start up a conversation with that he'd done it. In his heart of hearts, he had been well-aware that by this point in the trip, he would likely be feeling lonely and isolated despite the presence of his family. In that regard, he had been proven right. It was a pleasant change to hear a friendly voice and one which he didn't have to fear would bring commotion and a potential argument.

"Well, no one said it was going to be easy." He replied with a sigh. "These two are stubborn. That's for sure. Paul's got it in his head he hates Brandon. Brandon knows that and he's convinced that Paul's beyond hope."

"I can see how that might be a problem." The gym leader sounded sympathetic.

"Yeah well… I'm not done trying." Reggie assured her in an attempt to give himself some more courage. "How are things your end?

"Fine." She told him much to his relief. "That client of yours popped round and paid. The pokemon are fine."

"How about yourself?"

"Oh, you know me. It's been pretty quiet recently, especially without you here." He found himself blushing slightly at the comment. "I've got one challenger tomorrow."

"And who might that be?" Reggie questioned out of politeness more than anything else. After all, he doubted he would know whoever that was.

"Some kid called "Barry". Would you believe he tried to fine me?"

"What? Why?" There were obviously a few strange cases in Sinnoh.

"No idea! Something about being late..." He could hear her puzzlement even from the other end of the line. "Anyway, I hope he's as good a battler as he is a talker."

Reggie smiled. It was good to know that his old friend was back on her feet. He knew what it was like to be completely blown away in a battle. His father and Paul were harsh mentors in that respect. They didn't mix their words and if they thought you weren't up to scratch, they damn well let you know about it. If you weren't quite prepared for it or if you were a little sensitive then it could be quite the blow to both your confidence and your self-esteem. Brandon was about as delicate as his signature pokemon, Paul even less so. An encounter with them was often a scaring event if things went badly. Ash would no doubt be a good example if what Brock had told him about their encounters had been true.

"I'll be routing for you." He told the young woman.

"Thanks..." There was a sudden uneasy pause at the other end.

"Maylene?" He questioned wondering if he'd just lost connection.

"Reggie, it's probably nothing..." The gym leader sounded nervous. "Cynthia told me – told all the gyms really – to be on the lookout for team Galactic. You remember them?"

He let out a heavy sigh. Yeah, he remembered them alright. They'd been in the back of his mind for quite some time now. It wasn't that he was particularly afraid of bumping into them again, he was pretty sure that whatever they had been doing in Veilstone had been a once off. It was more just what they had been doing which had bothered him. He knew the police had been involved and had already given his account of what had happened along with Maylene and Ash and his group of friends. Naturally he'd heard about the theft of the Lustrous and Adamant orb afterwards. Whilst it was possible that the organisation was simply stealing rare artefacts and then selling them to the highest bidder, there was something about the whole thing which bugged Reggie. He couldn't quite place his finger upon it, maybe it was to do with growing up with Brandon's tales of adventures and mysteries to do with ruins and ancient civilisations, many of which could be summed up by "it's best to leave such things alone" which made him a little more sensitive to such things.

If Cynthia was taking the precaution of warning the gym leaders and potentially getting them ready for a conflict, then that meant he wasn't alone with his doubts and concerns. He didn't know if that was reassuring or not. Still, it wasn't the time to ponder such things.

"Hard to forget." He replied after a few moments of thoughtfulness. "Those guys gave me the creeps."

"Yeah me too..." She still sounded nervous, causing Reggie to wonder just what Cynthia had told her. "You be careful, okay Reg?"

"Ah, you know me!" He made an effort to sound cheerful and carefree in order to try and banish all concerns she might have had. "Besides, it's not like we're going to run into them out here."

"Yeah."

"Anyhow, I'd better get back to Paul and Brandon before they start bickering again."

"I don't envy you that." She laughed softly. "You stay safe and sane."

"Too late for that last one." He chuckled as a reply. "See you soon May."

He felt sorry as he hung up the phone. He could have spent another few hours chatting to her. Sadly, his family and phone bill wouldn't allow it. Given that they were roughly half way through the trip anyhow, he'd be seeing her in the not too distant future. He let out a sight smile as he returned the camp fire and his family. To his surprise, he wasn't questioned any further. Evidently the threat of no more dinner was more effective than he had initially thought it would be. He noted it down as a potential weapon to be used later on if the two of them ever got on his nerves again. Not that he suspected it would matter much at the end of this trip, the chances were he wouldn't be doing much more cooking for his brother of father.

So they continued their nightly routine of not saying a word to each other before swiftly returning to their respective tents. Sometimes Reggie wondered if there were other families like his. True, not everyone could claim to have lived through what they had but he wasn't arrogant enough to presume that they were the only ones to have suffered such a loss. Back in the early days, he'd read some of these survivor stories but as he'd watched his family crumble, he'd realized that they had precious little to do with what he was faced with. He'd been young when he'd figured out that if he didn't try to fix things, then they would be doomed to remain forever broken.

Reggie starred at the flickering flames for a moment longer before silently getting to his feet. His father's tent was about as far away from Paul's as it could get. At least that meant that if they were to have a discussion, the youngest son wouldn't risk overhearing them. The Pokemon breeder entered silently. He found his father sitting down, a small lantern nearby lighting the pages of his old journal. The man wrote steadily with a pen which looked as if it had seen better days. He wrote steadily, words which were meant for no one other than himself it would seem. His son waited patiently, although the Frontier Brain either hadn't noticed him or more likely was intentionally paying no attention to the intrusion. Tonight, however, the young man had no intention of being ignored:

"What do you write in that thing?" He asked the man.

"Notes. Experiences. I suppose you could call it a diary of sorts." Brandon replied not raising his gaze from the book.

"I remember that thing from way back. It can't be the same one. It must be nearly as old as me."

"I've had it since long before you were born." The man explained still not looking up. "It was a gift from your grandfather, to your mother who gave it to me shortly after she met me."

"There can't be much more space left in it then."

"Are you calling me _old_?" The man raised an eyebrow, glancing over the top of the book.

"No!" Reggie raised his hands in self-defense. "-But I mean… Those things run out eventually, depending on how much you write."

His father shot him an inquisitive look. No doubt the man had figured out than he wasn't all that interested in the workings of a book. None the less, he seemed content to go along with the conversation for the moment. It was small talk, something to try and lighten the mood before things became serious. Brandon shifted slightly so that he could more easily see the young man. He paused for a few moments, his gaze drifted back down to his journal for a couple of moments. The Pyramid King mindlessly stroked the back of the book for a moment.

"I add pages when I need some more and remove old ones which are less important and store them somewhere else." He explained before closing it once more. "-but that's not what you wanted to talk to me about."

"No..." Reggie confessed looking away for a moment. "It's Paul."

"Ah. Your brother, of course..." Brandon left a pause, allowing his son to specify just what about Paul he wanted to talk about.

"Brandon, you said some stuff..." Reggie wondered how best to explain what was troubling him. "I thought you couldn't relate to Paul. That's what I've been all of this about."

The Pyramid King placed the book down on his lap before throwing his head back and letting out a heavy sigh. He stayed like that for a few moments. Reggie couldn't help but stare, for the first time in a long while, he found that his father looked tired. Not the sort of tired that came about from not getting enough sleep but rather that which came along from a weariness with life. He supposed that Brandon wasn't quite as young as he used to be, that was something which could be difficult to get his head around. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to his son, he opened his eyes just a crack.

"It might surprise you to know young man but I was once a teenager myself." The man's attention flickered back towards the notebook for a couple of seconds. "A stupid, arrogant, foolhardy teenager angry at the world."

Never before had he heard his father speak in such terms. What puzzled him was that he didn't know if he was referring to himself in particular or to all teenagers as a general. His words in themselves were angry, resentful. Reggie knew next to nothing of his father's teenage years. It was rare for him to bring them up as anything more than a passing mention that he too had once been young. That wasn't what surprised the pokemon breeder the most though. It was the fact that his parent would even remotely compare himself to his youngest. That was something that Brandon plainly didn't do. Generally, he tried to distance himself as much as possible in terms of responsibility for Paul. That meant drawing no parallels between them whatsoever.

"You're saying you know what it's like?" Reggie questioned unsure how to react or even what he was being told.

"Of a fashion. I'm saying that once, a long time ago, I wasn't all that different from how your brother is now which is exactly why I know that this little plan of yours isn't going to work." The pokemon breeder averted his eyes whilst his father continued. "It takes more than a week in each other's company to get someone like Paul to change. It takes something big. Something I don't think either you nor me are capable of or alternatively it takes time, lots of it."

"You said that you were like that once..." Reggie recalled fixing the man once more. "What made you change?"

Brandon turned away. He chose to look away, straight at the other end of the tent as opposed to his son who had asked the question. For some reason, that irritated Reggie. He was willing to be understanding up to a point but in a time like this when it was his little brother's well-being which was at stake as far as he was concerned, his patience for the Pyramid King's cold disinterest was wearing a little thin. He clenched his fists, making an effort to keep his temper in check and to wait until the man had finished – well, he wasn't too sure what the hold up was but he was going to guess that his father was musing about the past or something.

"A bit of both..." The man eventually declared.

Reggie had dared to hope for something a little more substantial but knew from one look at the Frontier Brain's expression that that was absolutely all he was going to get from him concerning that topic. It would have been very easily to lose hope with his family. They seemed to be trying so darned hard to make themselves irredeemable. Be it Paul with his constant hostility and general tendency to be a "jerk" as most people tended to phrase it if they were trying to be polite or Brandon who seemed to only be trying to drive the wedge further in between them. The eldest son could have hated them both. He knew that was a luxury he couldn't allow himself however. He owed it to his mother.

He found himself wondering how his mother would have handled the situation. Would she have been patient and understanding? That was the path he had tried to take. He'd spent hours wondering if it was a mistake, would his mother have drawn a harder line than he had? Perhaps Paul and Brandon would only respond to force equal or superior to theirs. For the life of him, he couldn't remember how she'd handled more stressful situations involving his father. He couldn't remember ever hearing the two fighting or yelling at each other. He liked to believe that she had always been an excessively gentle soul. He remembered going to her whenever he was frightened or needed help, she always seemed to know what to do. It was a shame that now, whenever and wherever he looked, he found himself alone.

Letting out a sigh, he prepared to face his father once. There was little that could be done as far as Brandon was concerned other than to try and be more stubborn that he was. Not an easy task, for a man who seemingly loathed childishness, his refusal to admit that he could be incorrect or wrong in certain cases certainly seemed infantile at times to those around him.

"You said so yourself… Paul's not bad. The kid just needs guidance..." Reggie hesitated a moment hoping that he wasn't about to go a step too far. "Dad..."

It was a plea. He sounded desperate and he knew it.

Whilst Reggie didn't feel nearly as strongly about it as his little brother did, he refrained from calling their father by anything other than his name so as to avoid angering Paul. Should he fail to do so, then he knew full well that the young trainer would make his life a misery. It had been so long since he'd called the man "dad" or "father" it felt strange to him, alien but also somehow cleansing. Initially, he had stopped simply in order to put an end to his brother's temper tantrums when the boy had claimed that "dad" was gone now, just like mom and that they shouldn't talk about him. Admittedly, that might have been a clue that the boy needed some form of professional help as opposed to his father's stance of "give him some time". In any case, it had been enough to calm the lad a little. It had gotten to the stage where they had practically written their father out of the equation all together, seldom mentioning him other than when it was absolutely unavoidable and even then, only to the fewest amount of people possible. Anyone who asked Paul about the man would usually get either a mouthful of abuse or if he was feeling especially well-inclined, something along the lines of "None of your business.", a favorite sentence of his which seemed to be his answer to half of the questions others asked about him. As for Reggie, for his brother's sake, he had simply opted for explaining that it wasn't something they really talked about. Most people got the message, unlike his sibling, he gave people the benefit of the doubt, knowing that most of them would read between the lines and realize how sensitive a subject it was. They usually stopped, not wanting to risk opening wounds. After all, contrary to Paul, the Pokemon breeder wouldn't hold the curiosity of others against them.

Admittedly, he didn't really know where his father stood on the matter. When it had all started, all those years ago, Reggie had explained his reasoning. The Pyramid King had been very understanding, if a little disinterested. He'd made it abundantly clear that they could refer to him as pretty much whatever they wanted so long as it was something suitable for daytime television. His eldest son imagined that despite what the man claimed, it _must_ have hurt to have his own flesh and blood ignore him so openly. Brandon's heart might have been made of stone and ice but although Paul might have been a little too young to remember clearly, his brother knew that it was still there and that if you tried hard enough, you would ultimately be able to chip away at it and injure the man underneath. It wasn't much but from time to time, there was just a look of sorrow in his eyes - only present for the briefest of moments before he managed to banish it away to the depths of his being - but it was still there and spoke of an intense loneliness and pain which the eldest of the sons couldn't bare to witness. Maybe that was why the man tried to keep it hidden away like he did…

Ultimately however, it had been so long since either of his sons had referred to him as "dad" or something similar that Reggie found himself awaiting the man's reaction a little uneasily. He was all too aware that Brandon might not appreciate being reminded of his fatherly status which he often complained about where his youngest was concerned. More than once, he'd mentioned wanting to disown the boy. Granted, the words were spoken with anger and Reggie knew that in their family, you could generally discard most of what was said in such a manner as not actually being meant but still… It did cause him to wonder if the Pyramid King wouldn't be happier without his sons kicking around and periodically disturbing his life with one emergency or another.

That was however what he was hoping for. That using the word which he had banished from his vocabulary so long ago would trigger something inside the aging Frontier Brain and remind him that he was a father. That meant that from time to time he had to try stepping up to the plate. Brandon seemed to be chewing on his words for a few moments before eventually turning back to look at his eldest:

"You think I don't know that?!" He grumbled, his voice evidently resentful, low and angry but his face spoke only of pain. "He's been this way since- Well, you know when! Sometimes Reggie, people just aren't compatible! The truth is, I'm not able to help your brother and if that's why you called me here you're going to be sorely disappointed!"

"Neither of you are even trying!" Reggie snapped back, not about to let it go so easily. "As soon as you start to open up a little, it's like your automatic reaction is to start building walls again! Give it a shot! You said that you were the same-"

"I was like him once. A very long time ago. Don't go getting it into your head that if I were several decades younger your brother and I would be friends. I can tell you for a fact that if I had met him as a teen, we would have fought, badly." Brandon let out a heavy sigh before shaking his head dismissively. "The man I am now and the person Paul will never get along. Take my word for it! We're just too different..."

For some reason, that caused the anger to build up inside of Reggie to bursting point. He wasn't too sure what it was. In truth, he was somewhat aware that he wasn't thinking too clearly. The anger seemed to drown out everything that was around him. When he was a little clearer headed, he would no doubt have come to the conclusion that it was simply stress which had been piling up over days, maybe even months or years which was brought out by the fact that in his mind, he was the only reasonable person for miles around. Generally, the pokemon breeder wasn't a violent person. He left that up to his brother. Right now however, he found himself with his hands balled into fists and physically shaking as he struggled with the urge to punch his father square in the jaw.

The Pyramid King sensed it. He was certain of that much. There was just a look which passed through the man's eyes that spoke of the fact he knew he'd said or done something to push his son too far. Regardless, he didn't react any more than that. Reggie suspected that had he swung his fist then the man would have taken it and made no attempts to block, much less to fight back. That made any attempt to even try to strike him worthless in the young man's eyes.

Instead, he simply stormed towards the exit of the tent. It took him all of two steps. He stopped however at the door. When he turned back to look at his father, he shot the man a cold glare, fully intent on speaking his mind for once:

"You know, I've never said this to you or Paul but you're both idiots. I'm not even sure if it's sometimes or actually most of the time! The issue isn't that you're too different! It's that you're just the same!"

"Reggie..."

"I'm going to bed!"

Naturally, Brandon made no attempt to pursue. He looked genuinely sorry, that was all that his son cared to take in.

Reggie walked mindlessly into the night. He needed distance. The urge to scream was almost uncontrollable. Tears of rage stung at the corners of his eyes which he made no attempt to wipe away. Under his breath, the young man uttered curses which ordinarily he wouldn't have dared speak or even think. He hated them both. They had ruined his life. Yes, he had a life or would have had one had he not spent the one that he had lived worrying about his younger sibling and trying to convince his father the get involved. That would have been nice… He wanted to go back. Back to when none of this was his responsibility. Back to when he hadn't been alone.

He fell to his knees, tears cascading down his face. The freezing chill of the night registered suddenly and painfully. He felt freezing. It was a cloudless sky up there but both the moon and stars seemed to be impossibly distant. Rather than beauty, all he got from them was coldness. Sobbing loudly, he lowered his head.

"I can't do it mom..." He cried quietly in between sobs. "I just can't… I need you. Please come back. Come back!"

As always, his plea went unanswered. He had been expecting as much. No matter how much or how loudly he cried; it didn't matter how desperately he begged or for what reason, she was never there. Falling forwards, he cried, not even attempting to muffle his sobs.

To him, his father and brother were almost as far away...


	6. Day four

Something was very wrong. Paul knew it from the moment he emerged from his tent.

He couldn't quite place his finger on it at first. All he noted was that it was unusually quiet. By which he meant that there wasn't the quiet talking between Brandon and Reggie that he had become accustomed to. Usually, he would find them chatting idly about nothing, well, nothing of even remote interest to him. He had made a point in staying well out of their little conversations least they try to drag him into them. His sibling attempted to do so anyway but was smart enough to back away when he grasped that Paul simply wasn't in the mood. This morning however, there wasn't even a discussion about the weather. Instead, as he came out into the daylight, he spotted his brother busy tidying away his tent. Brandon for his part was shaving silently.

That in itself wasn't all that surprising. The Pyramid King wasn't the type to indulge in constant babbling. They wouldn't be talking every single minute. It was more the distance that was between them which Paul picked up on. Most of the time, they would be sat near to each other around the fire. Now, the space between them was quite apparent. Initially Paul simply disregarded it but it was when Reggie spotted that he was up and about and didn't say anything that he realized something must be up.

Instinctively, he opened his mouth to cut to the point and ask his sibling just what had happened. Had he had another second then he likely would have asked. Fortunately, he caught sight of the Frontier Brain out of the corner of his eye. The man shook his head slowly, giving the message not to disturb Reggie. For a moment, Paul actually contemplated ignoring his father's silent warning just on principle. It was only when he noticed the violence of his brother's gestures: the way he was heaving the pegs out of the ground with his bare hands and then stuffing them back in his bag that he decided that maybe some caution might be better.

Instead, he opted for helping himself to some breakfast. It was obvious that Brandon had cooked. No doubt to try and calm whatever had taken over Reggie by shouldering some of the burden. He didn't know him that well then… Paul knew the only way his brother would calm down was if given enough time and space to himself. Given how hacked off he seemed to be, they might very well end up waiting for quite some time.

That naturally begged the question of just what had upset Reggie to such a degree. His brother was by any standards understanding and patient. True, like anyone he could get irritated but that very rarely actually turned to pure anger. More often than not, he would just brush something off with a pleasant smile. It took a lot to get through all that kindness and willingness to listen. It certainly wasn't anything that Paul had said last night. He'd done much worse and failed to bring out his sibling's darker side. That only left one culprit… Which itself raised the question, just what on Earth could Pyramid King Brandon have said to Reggie to get him into such a state.

In his mind, Paul already knew what had happened. Brandon had said something he shouldn't have to Reggie or maybe that the elder brother simply didn't want to hear. Knowing his sibling, he would have talked to their father last night, most likely after he had gone to bed. That was the sort of thing that Reggie did, always believing that somehow you could talk things through. _More fool him_ , the young trainer thought to himself turning towards his brother, _he should know the old man is not one for listening to others_.

There were a number of possibilities. It was unlikely to be an insult, Reggie didn't care much what anybody called him. It could have been their mother but he doubted that his father would ever bring the woman up in such a way that would hurt either of his sons, even Brandon had his standards. It could have been Maylene, Paul supposed. Whilst just why his brother persisted in hanging around with that pathetic excuse for a gym leader remained a mystery to him, from what little he'd seen it was a slightly touchier than usual subject for him. That being said, he doubted that the Frontier Brain could have pushed him quite that far simply through some teasing. It would have had to be something which had angered him quickly as generally their father could sense when he was pushing things too far and would back off.

Very odd indeed.

Making things all the stranger and more awkward was the fact that Reggie's bad mood stuck. It lasted for hours. That was unusual. It was rare for his anger to last more than a few minutes. This one lingered and didn't even calm down much as they walked. He replaced Brandon up front, leading the way. A few times, Paul drew a little closer hoping to try talking to his brother and discover just what had happened to get him in such a state. Every time that he got even remotely close however, he found himself on the receiving end of a very hostile glare. It was enough to prompt him to back down without so much as a question. There were times when even Brandon's bravery and the pokemon trainer's stubbornness weren't enough…

Amazingly, this actually lead him to walk alongside his father.

"What the hell did you say to Reggie last night?" The boy asked quietly as they walked along.

"Something he didn't want to hear..." Brandon sighed looking down at his feet.

"I don't think I've ever seen him this pissed."

Naturally, he caught sight of the man's icy cold glare. Brandon always had disliked the use of vulgarities in his presence. This of course had led his youngest son to use them abundantly and at every possible opportunity. True, Paul did use them when they weren't always warranted out of spite but sometimes he found it more than a little irritating that his father didn't accept that there were times when they spoke louder than any other word. He found it hard to believe that the Pyramid King didn't swear. In fact, he knew that he did from time to time so just why he persisted in such an extreme reaction to even the most moderate curse was beyond his son.

"What?! It's the only word for it!"

Paul's raised voice drew the attention of Reggie. The look he gave them made Brandon's most fearsome glare seem like a loving and tender gaze. It was enough to prompt both of them to be silent once more. Whatever had gotten into his brother, Paul was most certain he didn't like. He was rather more fond of the calm and sedate sibling who you could do pretty much what you wanted to and wouldn't bat an eyelid. This guy was, frankly, a little too scary for his liking. Even the man who gave out the "Brave symbol" was keeping his distance. Both of them choosing to be quiet for a while longer before the aging Frontier Brain finally muttered:

"It's the only word for it..." Brandon reluctantly agreed.

At least they could both agree on that point. Paul knew better than to wait for explanations from his father as to just what had transpired between the two of them. Or rather anything more detailed than the little that he had already said. He would consider such matters to be confidential and to be between the two of them only. No chance getting much out of him.

If Paul stuck by his father that morning, it was simply to stay away of Reggie's way. There was no way he was crossing his brother when he was in a mood like this. Granted the proximity to Brandon was undesirable but at least in his mind if they stuck together then they were less likely to attract the elder sibling's ire. The Pyramid King must have been thinking something similar as he didn't do or say anything which could potentially have lead to more conflict. They were both smart enough to know to keep their heads down or at least he hoped they were. As time went on and Reggie's mood stayed the same, he found himself increasingly uncertain. To the point where he actually went so far as to break the silence between them.

"Okay, here's the deal. Neither of us, say or do anything to make him any angrier." He hissed under his breath.

"As opposed to trying our hardest to get on his bad side?" His father grumbled as a response.

"You know what I mean, crumby old man."

"Watch it!" Brandon warned him only just managing to contain his instinct to raise his voice.

"What?" Paul challenged forgetting momentarily about his brother.

Brandon gritted his teeth but managed to contain the answer which was so obviously waiting to be unleashed. The surprise good news about him was that he was a man who liked to be heard. Otherwise put, he yelled a lot. His "No"s were of course infamous and just why such a generally self-contained man shouted like that so much was anybody's guess. It did however mean that in situations when for some reason he couldn't raise his voice and deafen his audience, he found himself a little stuck. The man's expression was almost comical as he struggled with the urge to start bellowing. Finally, he let out a sigh, releasing some of the tension.

"Showing some respect wouldn't hurt you boy."

Respect… Everyone respected Brandon. They didn't necessarily _like_ him but boy, oh boy did they respect him. He'd seen hard men, real brutes who normally couldn't wait to do anything but start up a fight and thought they were the centre of the world become quiet in the Pyramid King's presence. Sure, fear had something to do with it. Not everybody dared take on the Frontier brain, maybe that was why he handed out the Brave symbol on the rare times he was defeated. There was something else about his demeanour however which made others listen and it wasn't just because of that booming voice of his either. Whatever it was, it was something that he had never been able to mimic. Many of those who encountered him were intimidated alright but it wasn't quite the same.

In truth, it was the one thing that Paul envied about the man. His ability to enter a room and to make others fall silent.

Paul decided against arguing with the man. If only to try and avoid his brother's anger. He would leave Brandon with his precious 'respect'. Did the Pyramid King even respect his opponents? Paul couldn't remember feeling much of it coming from his father when he had faced him. Then again, he never bothered trying to hide the contempt he felt for his youngest son even in the latter's presence. Paul let out a heavy sigh as he walked along in silence.

"Your brother's temper was always harder to manage than yours." Brandon declared after a few moments.

"What are you talking about?" Paul raised an eyebrow. "Reggie almost never gets mad!"

"Yes but when he does, it's a nightmare to get him to calm down." The man let out a sigh. "Even as a kid, his temper tantrums could go on for hours."

Paul could actually remember them. He hadn't seen a really serious one in quite some time. Apparently being thrust into a position of certain responsibility had caused his sibling to mature enough to no longer be subject to his moodiness. For the most part at least, this was a typical example of just why you couldn't make such assumptions. He imagined that right now, all that was in his brother's head was pure rage. What was brief but brutal for both him and his father, lingered for far longer where Reggie was concerned. Brandon was right, even as a lad, he could remain furious for ages. Only the subject of his rage had changed.

Walking in complete and utter silence was something this little camping trip had gotten him used to. It was impressive how long the three of them could go without talking. It wasn't as if it even weighed very heavily on him. If anything, it allowed him to slip away to somewhere else and to almost forget about his current company. Simply closing his eyes for a few seconds was a welcome escape. He would have rather been pretty much anywhere else on the planet other than here right now with these two.

At least now Reggie seemed to have taken note of his own folly. There weren't many people on the planet who would have thought that something like this was a good idea and all of them bar one could probably be found in an asylum. With any luck, he would learn his lesson and keep his word about never trying to get them to talk again. Paul found himself wondering just why on Earth his brother had even tried to get them together again. Surely he was better off when they weren't talking. He didn't have to worry about what they were saying to each other for starters and he could enjoy the fact that they would be in a moderately better mood having not been fighting mere moments before. If nothing else, it must have been a pleasant rest for his ears.

Instead, he always tried to get them together. It didn't matter how much they resisted or tried to explain to him why it was a bad idea, he just wouldn't listen. Paul knew that it must have hurt him. It was plain to see every time things went south and one or both of them ended up storming out in a rage after exchanging words which a father and son really shouldn't. There was no mistaking the look of crushed hopes and an almost broken spirit as he watched them both leave. Yet, a few days later he would be phoning them up again and trying to organize another meeting. It was almost as if he liked getting punished.

Thinking about it. A strange sensation came over Paul. He couldn't quite place it for a few moments before remembering it as regret. He never wanted to hurt Reggie. It just sort of… Happened… Whenever he and his father were in close proximity. He tried to dismiss the guilt as a weakness which he would do well to get rid of. _He had it coming_ , Paul argued in his own head, _He knows he's going to get hurt but he goes along and does it again and again_. Always banging his head against the same old stone wall, that was his beloved elder sibling in a nutshell, maybe one day his head would finally crack. Perhaps it just had…

The silence dragged on all day. Reggie's anger was perhaps a little less aggressive than it had been. The cold glares had been replaced by a quietness which best resembled a sulk as far as Paul could tell. Neither he nor Brandon were about to risk disturbing him and bringing out the rage again, that was for sure. Even dinner which the Frontier Brain cooked was held in complete silence. The surprise good news was that come tomorrow, they could begin climbing back down the mountain. That should lift their spirits a little, knowing that with each step, they grew closer to the final parting of the ways and a future without one another. At least that's how the young pokemon trainer liked to think about it.

Brandon went to bed early that night. Apparently, he saw no point in hanging around out there with his two sons for longer than he had to. That suited his youngest just fine. For an adventurer, the Pyramid King was a man of habit. You could probably have timed just how long it took for him to go to sleep proper. He always spent a few minutes writing in that journal of his. You could make out the faint light from his lamp through the tent. After that, the light would go out and he would drift off to sleep rather quickly. This all generally happened within the space of half an hour, usually less. Predictability could be a weakness if you knew how to exploit it.

Naturally, that was exactly what Paul intended to do. Despite the chill of the mountain side after dark. He made the effort stay awake and resist the temptation to retreat to the relative warmth and shelter of his own tent. Apparently Reggie felt the same way as he stayed out with him. He remained silent however, dismissing his sibling's initial assumption that he had been waiting for their father to go to bed so the two of them could talk in private. In truth, the pokemon breeder had no idea why his brother hadn't gone to bed yet. Maybe he was enjoying the fresh air although considering how cold it was right now, he found that hard to believe. As the minutes trickled by, the breeder still showed no signs of turning in. So be it…

Getting to his feet silently, Paul tiptoed his way towards his father's tent. He noticed Reggie's curious gaze following him but still he didn't say anything, not even as he silently opened the door. Good. It didn't look like he was going to encounter any opposition from his brother. That just left the old man to worry about.

Inside, his father was sure enough, fast asleep. Paul held his breath as he slipped in. His target was thankfully not very far away. It was tempting to simply run and to try and get in and out as fast as possibly. He didn't trust himself to be silent enough to not wake the man up. That meant treading slowly which prolonged the time he was in there and the chances of Brandon coming to naturally were greater. This wasn't the first time he'd snuck around like this though and he trusted himself to be able to do it again. He smiled slightly as he reached the man's bag, carefully lifting it so that none of its contents could potentially spill out and make a noise. Then, as quietly as he had entered, he made his way back to the door.

"What are you doing?" Was what Reggie said to him when he'd slipped back outside and zipped the door shut behind him.

"Going through Brandon's stuff, what's it look like?"

He should perhaps have been surprised that his brother was talking again. Apparently, all of his anger seemed to have vanished. It was replaced by that disapproving look which he tried to use and still hadn't grasped didn't work on his younger sibling. Reggie glanced over to the man's tent, as if he was expecting him to suddenly burst out of there. Always the bore, he remained at a distance however, his irritated look only becoming more pronounced as the crease in his brow deepened. It would take more than that to faze Paul whoever who turned his attention back to the bag and its contents, eager to get a little further away from where his father was currently sleeping so as not to risk waking him up.

Paul sat down near the fire, putting the rucksack down in front of him. He glanced over his shoulder, almost expecting to find his father there. Of course, he encountered only the darkness of the night. Turning away, the Pyramid King's eldest son cautiously opened the bag. The first few things were of little interest: clothes, a cup and some other equipment. Brandon was a man who tended to hide his personal belongings. His son knew that he would have to be quite careful with them if he wanted to put them back and his prying to go unnoticed at the end of all this. As he placed the things he wasn't interested in next to him on the log, his brother once more intervened:

"You shouldn't do that!" Reggie snapped keeping as quiet as possible to avoid waking the man. "That's Brandon's stuff."

"Oh shut it Reggie!" Paul snapped struggling to keep his voice hushed. "Don't you want to see what the Great Pyramid King's prized possessions are?"

"Not if they're dangerous!" The eldest brother hissed as a reply. "Paul you know he goes to all these ruins and stuff. Remember the stories he used to tell us?!"

"What? Curses? Ancient evil spirits?" Paul laughed coldly. "Oh please! Stories to send us to sleep at night."

"Or keep us up..." Reggie muttered shivering as he no doubt thought back to a few of them.

Paul simply shook his head dismissively, choosing to ignore his sibling. Reggie had lost his scary face. That made him easier to deal with. His little brother's idea of dealing with him was more often than not to simply ignore him, knowing that his sibling usually wasn't the type to back his words up with actions, made all the better by the fact that he wasn't exactly well-versed in tough talk either. Granted, given the latter's mood for almost all of today, he was a little more cautious around the pokemon breeder than he otherwise would have been.

Finally, he hit some pay dirt or at least he thought it was. Paul's face fell noticeably when instead of plucking out something interesting, he found himself grasping onto a harmonica. It would have been wrapped in a piece of cloth but as he had rummaged around, most of it had slipped off. He discarded it next to him along with the rest of Brandon's worthless belongings. To his surprise however, Reggie picked it up. He examined it carefully, turning it over in his hands. Slowly, a soft smile crept up onto the young man's features. It caused his brother to frown slightly, wondering what he could possibly find so amusing about an old musical instrument.

"I can't believe he still has this." As if by magic, he seemed to have guessed what his sibling had been going to ask. "Don't you remember? Man, when we were kids… We'd sit on his knees and he'd play it to us."

"How sentimental..." Paul muttered through clenched teeth trying not to think back to it.

"I wonder if he still plays..." Reggie wondered ignoring his brother.

"Hey, what's this?"

Paul pulled out a sphere wrapped in a thick green cloth. It was comparatively heavy, an odd thing to bring along on a camping expedition like this one. Curious, Reggie came over. Apparently, right now the ethics of poking through their father's stuff didn't bother him so much when it was something he was interested in. The youngest son placed the strange sphere on his lap before slowly and carefully removing the fabric around it. It was a large blue sphere, one which seemed to be pulsing slightly from time to time. They simply starred at it, wondering just what on Earth they were currently looking at. It was something strange, otherworldly… It unnerved the youngest brother somewhat.

"Registeel, I need your assistance!"

Paul had gotten about as far as thinking the "Uh" from "Uh oh" when he found himself being picked up by the scruff of his jacket. He let out a brief gasp as he was lifted up off of the ground. As he thrashed around in an attempt to free himself, one of his kicks landed squarely in the bag, knocking it over as well as all of its contents, spilling them over the floor. The orb fell. It came perilously close to sticking the floor. His father caught it, moving like lightning to ensure it didn't actually hit the deck. Seeking help, the pokemon trainer turned to his brother only to discover that he was in the same predicament.

"You idiots!" Brandon's voice bellowed. "Do you have any idea what you could have done?!"

He was angry, that much was clear. This wasn't exactly the first time that they'd gone through his stuff without his permission. Paul could recall doing it when they were both children. They would see if their father had some secret treasure lying around from some of his fabled adventures. Naturally, Brandon tended to be more than cautious where ancient artefacts were concerned and had never left anything lying around that could potentially be dangerous. Apparently, he must have thought that they had grown out of it. How mistaken he had been. It did cause his youngest son to wonder just what the orb was however.

The Pyramid King inspected it carefully. The pulsating seemed to be stopping now that he had it in his hands. Very carefully, the Frontier Brain wrapped it back up in the cloth which had initially surrounded it. He sat down on the tree trunk, resting it in his lap. The man made no effort to tell his pokemon to release his two sons. Instead, just sitting there in silence for a few moments. Despite currently being held in a rather uncomfortable manner, Paul didn't quite feel like interrupting the man's quiet reflection. He was a little concerned about the damage that he had potentially done and expected a full lecture to follow. He would listen only for as long as it took for him to discover just what the mysterious orb was.

"Do you realize what you could have done?" He muttered eventually anger seething under his voice.  
"Uh… No!" Paul rolled his eyes in exasperation. "You never bothered mentioning that thing!"  
"So you thought you'd play with it?" Brandon grumbled something under his breath, angry ramblings, nothing they could make out. "This happens to be Regigigas."

Now, having spent most of his life in Sinnoh, Paul knew a fair bit about its legends. People always seemed to be fascinated by them. Be it Dialga and Palkia or the Lake Guardians, they were everywhere from ancient temples to television shows and souvenir shops. Naturally, given their father's interests, they had been exposed to a few of the ancient secrets their pokemon world had to offer. They should have known better. Although the idea that their father would take the seemingly ridiculous risk of carting around Regigigas in his rucksack struck his youngest son as rather bizarre. Surely, it was just asking for trouble. Especially given how hyper-cautious the Pyramid King tended to be with such things.

"So why do you have him with you?" Reggie asked more curious than anything else.

"After he was awakened..." Brandon let out in a sigh. "I promised to protect him. I can't do that up here with you two."

Paul's gaze fell back upon the orb he had held. It struck him at that moment that he had had a legendary pokemon in his hands. Regigigas… Would it have been any different if he had known what the orb was? It was impossible for him to know now. He struggled to get his head around just how such a supposedly gigantic pokemon could be in there or just why it would accept to be dwell in such a tiny space in the possession of a man like Brandon. He had half expected the Frontier Brain to try and catch the legend so as to add to his little collection. With the benefit of hindsight, it was probably a good thing the man had woken up. Better that than they accidentally awakening the sleeping golem.

"We didn't know..." Paul muttered, there was a slight accusation for him not having told them but also an explanation there.

Brandon let out a sigh and shook his head as he carefully tucked the orb away, placing it in his bag once more. As if it could read its partner's mind, Registeel suddenly released both of the Pyramid King's sons allowing them to fall back down to the ground. Paul grunted as he landed on his hands and knees. He looked up to see Brandon getting to his feet and starting to collect his stuff which had landed all over the place. Still getting the distinct feeling that they were in the doghouse for this one, both of his sons elected to stay where they were. They sat up a little and simply watched their father.

"Sorry..." Came Reggie's quiet apology after a while.

"Yeah..." Paul reluctantly grumbled under his breath.

The action didn't go unnoticed by Brandon. The man froze. His gaze falling upon his youngest. Paul looked the man straight in the eyes. He wasn't about to repeat himself. The man had heard him. If he expected anything more then he was wasting his time. After a few seconds, he went back to picking up his stuff. Once more, both Paul and Reggie remained completely and utterly silent in order to avoid any more of the man's anger, as justified as it might have been in this circumstance. The Pyramid King more allowed himself to fall down than actually sitting. It was neither graceful nor dignified and allowed both of his sons to know that he was severely hacked off.

"You haven't tried a stunt like that since you were knee heigh." He muttered through clenched teeth. "Just what were you thinking?! You know the life I live! If nothing else, it's an invasion of my privacy!"

Both boys looked away down at their feet. Paul finally dared to cast his father back a look. It was a strange thing but without really understanding why, he explained himself. It went without saying that it was something he almost never did. Generally, in his mind, he didn't owe the Pyramid King even the ghost of the curtsey. He didn't know why it just slipped out. He almost hated himself for it, for being so weak and justifying himself. What puzzled him the most was that he wasn't too sure just why he did it. No matter how he tried to understand his own reasoning - not that there had been any conscious thought that he had been aware of - he found himself unable to do so.

"I was looking for that journal of yours. I wanted to see if you had any of mom's drawings."

Brandon fixed him with an odd look. It wasn't anger so much as confusion. No doubt he was wondering just what after all these years would cause his youngest to express such an interest in one of his mother's hobbies. After so long, he had never once brought up the woman in his presence unless it was to try and make some sort of barbed point. Paul didn't feel like explaining why he had wanted to see the drawings. He just wanted to the man to know that that had been what he had been looking for.

Without looking away, Brandon reached back into his bag and pulled out his journal. Carefully, he opened the front page. His gaze travelled over to the papers which seemed to captivate his attention for a few moments. Then, very slowly, he handed his youngest son the drawings. Paul accepted them a little uncertainly. For some reason, he hadn't quite expected to be given them. He had imagined that Brandon would be more possessive of them, especially considering what he had caught them doing mere moments before.

It was strange for him to look at the pieces of paper and think that some years ago, it had been his mother drawing them. They were good. They varied a little in style, although he couldn't tell if that was an intentional artistic choice or simply the result of her gaining practice and experience as the years passed. Some of them represented people, there was one still-life and most of them seemed to be pokemon of one kind or another. He could still see some of the marks of lines which she had drawn and then rubbed out. A few of the sketches even had some color added to them. There was little doubt that the artist responsible had spent many hours doing them and put her heart and soul into them.

Paul found himself wondering if like him, his mother had found something appeasing about the act of drawing. Had she seen it as a hobby which she enjoyed doing? The skill, technique and effort she had evidently put into it seemed to indicate that she had. He wondered why his father had picked these drawings in particular to keep with him as he did. Presumably, there were many others. He doubted that this was everything his mother had ever done. There had to be some others elsewhere which would imply that a selection process had been made somewhere along the line. It begged the question of which ones met his father's criteria.

"Who's this guy?" Paul asked nodding in the direction of a young man whom his mother seemed to have drawn several times.  
"That…" Brandon contemplated the picture. "Would be me."

Paul had guessed as much. It was hard to imagine who else his mother would have drawn. It was perhaps the oldest of the drawings. Its paper showed the signs of age and of having been folded several times for many a year. He was younger, much younger. There weren't many photos of him from the time. So to be able to lay eyes upon even a sketch of him was something of a strange experience for his sons. Reggie also leaned over, eager to see just what the Pyramid King had looked like at that age.

"I must have been in my early twenties." He told them noticing their interest.

"Good to see I'm not the only one in the family to have a ponytail." Reggie replied with a somewhat teasing smirk.

"What can I say? A folly of youth..." Brandon muttered looking away for a moment, he might even have been blushing. "Your mother saw to it that I lost it shortly afterwards."

"She didn't like it?" The eldest brother raised an eyebrow genuinely curious.  
"I don't know about that." The Pyramid King rubbed the back of his head where once the ponytail would have hung. "-but she set it on fire and I couldn't be bothered regrowing it afterwards."

The two sons simply starred at their father for a few moments. Paul found himself looking at the drawing of the young man and trying to picture the ponytail on him. Hm… Maybe his mother didn't like longer hair. No, that couldn't be it. She'd had long flowing dark locks, he could recall that much. Perhaps it was simply when it was worn by men which brought out her inner pyromaniac. As far as he could recall, she hadn't tried to set light to anyone else. On all accounts, she'd been a calm and kind individual, not the sort to take a flamethrower to the man who would be their father in later years. Although frankly, her youngest couldn't hold it against her. Indeed, he found himself sympathising to a degree.

"It was an accident." The man assured them after a few moments.

Paul decided to leave it at that. There were some things which he felt no explanation could ever possibly satisfy him. Just how anyone could possibly set fire to someone else by accident was beyond him and not something he particularly wanted to know more about. Instead, he turned back to the drawings of his father. He looked vaguely moody in a few of them, a perpetual frowner, even back then it would seem. A few however showed him to be smiling slightly. It was by pure chance that Paul caught sight of a little note at the bottom.

"Jerk?" He asked his father.

"It's what she used to call me." The man chuckled slightly. "Once sent a letter addressed to me as such."

"And it got to you?" Reggie asked chuckling slightly.

"Yes." He nodded slowly, a most definite shade of pink. "Different times."

It was an amusing thought. He had trouble imagining his mother writing such a letter and found himself wondering if there had been any real animosity there or if it was simply her way of teasing him. If someone else were to write to the Pyramid King in such a way nowadays, well- He didn't know just who would be stupid enough to do so – but it most definitely wouldn't end well. He wished that he could remember the relationship between his two parents. It was all too far away now and he had been too young to really notice it at the time. He just remembered them being together.

They sat there for a few moments in silence. The embers from the fire were still glowing but the flames themselves had begun to die down. Paul continued to contemplate the drawings for a few moments. It took him a moment to notice that there was some writing on the other side of the paper. He turned it over. He discovered a note. The words were faded. They were in a neat and tidy hand, no doubt from long ago. He would have started to read them were it not for his father's gaze which he sensed upon him.

"These yours?" He asked the Pyramid King.

"Your mother sent them to me. It's how she used to write her letters." Brandon told him.

"Same way as she gave you that journal?" Paul continued his questions.

"No. That was more of a gift." A soft smile graced the man's face.

"Did mom ever write anything in there?"

"A few things but she was young, you might not recognise her handwriting."

Paul was pretty sure that he couldn't have recognized his mother's handwriting in most circumstances, let alone from her younger years. That was something which would probably mean more to his father. He had known her for longer after all. The youngest of the sons, cast the pictures one last glance before tentatively offering them back to the Pyramid King. He accepted them silently, slipping them back inside of his journal. There they would remain no doubt for a long time to come, just like they always had.

Silence settled in once more. They could feel the anger slowly dissipate. Fighting amongst themselves was something they had all gotten used to. As unpleasant as their conflicts could be, they had grown to known them well and recognise the various stages of them. This was the "cooling off" stage. It was best to say nothing and what little did pass between them had to be polite and innocuous. Given that Paul didn't trust himself with being able to come up with anything which fit into either category and so opted to remain quiet. Brandon however, it would seem had other plans:

"Give me that!" He demanded gesturing at the harmonica.

"What? Are you going to play?" Paul asked the man as he handed it over.

"Me? I haven't played this thing in years boy!"  
"Make a change?" Reggie piped up.

The man let out a heavy sigh as he contemplated both of his sons. Paul didn't care too much if he played or not but he wasn't about to demand that the man remain silent. If Reggie requested it, given the mood he had been in for the best part of the day, the youngest wasn't about to risk provoking him further. For a moment, the Pyramid King seemed undecided. He was no doubt still a little irritable and frustrated by them going through his stuff. It looked as if he might very well be about to refuse. Then, slowly, without speaking a word, he took the instrument to his mouth.

Initially, Paul simply planned on heading back to bed. He didn't need or particularly want to listen to his father playing some rusty old harmonica. The time would be better spent resting.

As he left however, the sound of the first few notes of music hit his ears. It was a simple tune but one which he felt that he had heard before. Without wanting to, he found himself sitting on a porch he hadn't set foot on in a very long time. He could see his father sitting there on an old wooden chair with Reggie on his knee. His mother was there as well. He was sitting on her lap. He could almost feel the warmth of the woman as she held him close as they both listened. It was nothing spectacular but seemed to carry something calming with it. Whatever it was, it caused him to remain rooted where he currently was. Reluctantly, he turned around to face his father and sat down.

Paul closed his eyes, taking advantage of the music to think about other times which he had almost forgotten. It felt good to escape for a few moments...


	7. Day five (part one)

"Darn Pikachu!"

"Where abouts are we?"

"Dunno… Some place cold."

Brandon let out a heavy sigh. He rubbed his heavy eyelids, sitting up steadily in his sleeping bag. He felt his muscles tense slightly, informing him that they didn't much care for being left in this cold. There was a time, when he could have slept in this easily. He would have laughed it off in the morning. Now, well, his body wasn't overly fond of the cold and was sure to let him know about it with a good bout of stiffness when he woke up. Yet another reminder that he was getting older. He managed to hold back a groan, as he silently, slipped out of the warm blankets. It was still dark out. Go figure, something like this was never going to happen at a reasonable time of the day. He cautiously picked up one of his pokeballs before grabbing his bag and silently slipping over to the exit of the tent.

He peered out. Only the moon served to light the surroundings. What he could make out was four figures, two humans and two pokemon poking around outside. Oh well… This wasn't the first time he'd been in a situation like this. All those years on the roads, alone or with company, yes, he had encountered troublemakers before skulking around after dark. A small smirk appeared on his face, after four days on the road, he could do with blowing off some of this steam.

"Regirock! I need your assistance!"

He shouted loudly. The pokeball flew through the air, releasing the legendary golem. He heard the shrieks of those he had surprised. Brandon was quick to follow, he leapt landing in the snow. They were unprepared good. The commotion would likely wake up his sons. Good. He didn't need the reinforcements but maybe they could learn a thing or two should they ever find themselves confronted with a similar situation.

He frowned slightly. He was more than capable of making out the large red "R" on their shirts. He knew it well. Team Rocket… Hm… Pokemon thieves. He knew them full well. A group of crooks, troublemakers by any standards. It wasn't the first time he'd encountered them. His line of work meant that he had been forced to fight those who wanted to capture ancient pokemon for their own purposes many times in the past, Pokemon Hunter J was only the most recent example. There seemed to be a meowth with them, as well as a wobboffet. Neither would be efficient against any of his regis. Although, they almost certainly would have other pokemon on standby. Best get this over with quickly then…

"Use focus punch!"

"Aw come on!" Complained the man as he watched the golem coming towards him, fist raised. "Bad enough the twerps took out the rest of our pokemon, now the pyramid fly boy's having a go!"

"Sometimes we just don't get a brake!" The meowth shouted much to Brandon's surprise.

"Instead of just standing there, why don't the two of you do something?" The woman asked the two of them. "Wobboffet use mirror coat!"

Brandon had just enough time to brace himself. The impact from the focus punch on the blue pokemon created a shockwave which threatened to knock him off his feet. Behind him, the pegs holding his tent in place gave way, sending the piece of fabric flying into the winds. He cursed silently under his breath as he forced himself to keep his eyes open and pay attention to the fight. He found himself wondering just how much the wobbuffet could take. It wasn't every pokemon which could stand up to one of his golems. His recent battle with Paul had been a good example. Even protect wasn't enough at times.

To his surprise, he found Regirock on one knee. Perhaps that was to be expected, having his attack sent right back at him couldn't have done much good. He imagined that it must have been something akin to punching a brick wall. Still, he was in better state that the wobbuffet which currently lay on the ground no doubt unable to remember what day of the week it was. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Paul. The lad threw one of his pokeballs into the fray, releasing Torterra. A drapion emerged from the tent next to it.

All of a sudden, the three thieves didn't look so confident any more. They didn't stand much of a chance, unless they had something truly spectacular up their sleeves and Brandon was willing to bet that given the way they were currently looking around pleadingly as if hoping something would drop out the sky and rescue them that they didn't.

"You guys alright?" Reggie asked darting out into the snow to join them.

"Fine." Brandon assured him not taking his eyes off of the crooks. "Just dealing with out guests."

"Oh no… Not these guys..." Brandon took note of his eldest son's exasperated expression.  
"You know them?" The Pyramid King asked the lad, a little surprised.

He knew little about Reggie's social circle. Next to nothing as it happened. It wasn't something he had ever concerned himself with. A long time ago, he and the boys' mother had come to an agreement which they wouldn't interfere in their childrens' social lives. That being said, the idea of his eldest being acquainted with a bunch of thieves and troublemakers didn't exactly sit well with him. He might have expected it from Paul and even that would probably not have been because he considered them to be friend material (he wasn't sure if the lad even had a friend) but simply to try and make a point. From his eldest however, it came as more of a surprise. He hoped there was a good explanation.

"Not exactly..." Reggie shook his head negatively. "I've heard of them though. A few of the gym leaders have had run ins with them or so Maylene tells me. They're a bunch of thieves. You know that Ash guy? The one with the pikachu? Apparently they keep on trying to steal it but they're not very good."

"Actually-" Brandon's voice trailed off as he looked at the three of them. "I think I remember now… Hah! And here I was getting all worked up!"

Now that he knew just who these three were. He relaxed a little. He had heard from his fellow frontier brains about some of their antics. Whilst they posed something of a threat, it was more of a nuisance than an actual danger on all accounts. The Pyramid King was more than confident that he could handle this group of misfits, even without the assistance of his sons. He had faced terrors before, real pieces of work who would make this little group look like amateurs. These three now held very little concern for the ageing Frontier Brain. Instead, a little smirk appeared on his face.

"So what are we going to do with you, eh?" He asked them.  
"Aw but we just blasted off!" The man complained bracing himself slightly.

"Yeah! Two blast offs in one day's not good for the health you know!" The Meowth argued.

"Blast offs?" Brandon paused for a moment before realizing what they were referring to. "Oh! That must be when you shoot off into the sky!"

He could recall seeing Ash Ketchum sending them flying just before challenging him or the final time in the Battle Pyramid. Just how these three managed to survive something like that was beyond him. In theory, the force necessarily simply to send them sky bound like that should have been enough to tear them limb from limb. That wasn't even taking into account the impact which would result from the inevitable fall. Bizarrely, they seemed to be used to it given that on all accounts, every time they were defeated they were last seen flying off towards the stratosphere. It was enough to cause Brandon to wonder if it was something that they eventually got used to.

"So what are we waiting for?!" Paul demanded stepping forwards, his Torterra preparing to launch an attack. "

"Wait a moment boy!" Brandon demanded his gaze fixed on the three crooks. "Every time you get defeated, you fly away, yes?"

"Well, pretty much..." The man exchanged uncertain glances with his comrades.

"Then it follows that if we attack you, you'll simply go flying and land somewhere else, will you not?"

"What ya gettin' at?" The Meowth asked him.

"It would be pretty much pointless for us to attack." Brandon explained both to Team Rocket and his sons. "You'd just end up somewhere else in Sinnoh and become someone else's problem."

"And that would be bad because..?" Paul questioned him.

"Responsibility, kid. About time you learned something about it." He glanced around. "We can't just let these guys go free… Either of you got a rope?"

Reggie seemed to catch on before his brother. He smiled knowingly disappearing a moment later. The Pyramid King and his youngest son kept an eye on the team Rocket trio. It was actually a lot easier to tie up the three thieves and take their pokeballs than Brandon had thought it might be. Then again, Regirock, Torterra and Drapion could be a rather good disincentive as far as mischief was concerned. They tied them to a tree, ensuring that there was no possible way that the three of them could possibly escape. It was an odd thing to have to do at 3.54 AM…

"Tomorrow, we'll take these three back down the mountain to the Sinnoh police." Brandon informed his two sons as they stood there.

"So they can't cause any more trouble…" Reggie muttered rubbing his eyes. "A great end to this camping trip."

"Come on Reggie, actually this makes the perfect ending to this trip." Paul glaring at their captives.

"I guess it makes about as much sense as anything." The eldest brother laughed slightly. "You three aren't going to give us any hassle, are you?"

"Uh..." They started looking around.

"If you do, blasting off will be the least painful activity of your evening." Brandon warned them coldly.

"No problems! It's a promise!" The pokemon declared.

A little dubious, Brandon walked over to where his tent had been. Fortunately, he still had his bag but as for the shelter itself… It was likely half way down mount Coronet by now. He let out a sigh, looking up at the night sky. It was cloudless, allowing him to see all of the stars. Apparently, he would be sleeping under them for the next few days. He heard the sound of his sons' footprints on the snow coming up behind him. The man turned around, to see them. He smiled softly, feeling the effects of having been woken up at such an ungodly hour in the morning.

"You think they'll be okay?" Reggie looked back at the thieves nervously.

"I should think so." He nodded in agreement. "They'll be a bit chilly tonight though."

"What about you? That was your tent." His eldest son told him looking out over the side of the mountain.

"I'll be fine." Brandon assured him. "It's not the first time I slept rough you know."

Actually, he was willing to bet that it would be a pretty unpleasant experience sleeping in the snow. A chilly one to be certain. With any luck, between the three of them they would be able to muster enough supplies together to be able to create some form of sleeping bag to ensure that he wouldn't risk freezing to death out in the elements. If nothing else, this was going to make for an interesting story to tell his fellow Frontier Brains. Tucker was going to have a field day with this one. He could already hear the Dome Ace now, teasing him about how he couldn't even go on a camping trip without it ending in disaster and things becoming ten times more complicated than they should have been. He could only chuckle at it himself sometimes. He had learned long ago not to be angry at the world for what it threw at him God knew, it seemed to have it out for him and his own.

"I'll share with Reggie."

The declaration caught Brandon by surprise. He turned around to face his youngest. Paul simply looked at him blankly. He knew better than to expect his son to repeat himself. It would seem that the lad hated all forms of kindness, especially when he was the one offering it. To him, it was the worst form of weakness. That was why his father found himself wondering – and hating himself for it – if the teen could have some other motivation behind the offer. He shouldn't be so sceptical where his own flesh and blood was concerned but it was truly rare that he offered to do anything for another's benefit.

"Thank you." The father muttered trying not to appear too shocked.

He got a _hmph_ as a response. With Paul, that meant that you shouldn't push things any further. Generally, it was a noise he made when he either couldn't be bothered answering something properly or when he was doing something begrudgingly. An arrogant mark of disdain which he had developed a few years ago to both his father and brother's irritation and sometimes in public to their embarrassment. It was a habit that in the early days Brandon had tried to break him of. Of course, nothing could be done and he retained the unpleasant mannerism. Since then, the ageing Frontier Brain had reluctantly learned to roll with it.

They triple checked the ropes on Team Rocket before heading back to their tents, eager to try and make up for some of the sleep they had just lost. When the sun came up, they would have to start making their way back down the mountain and to civilisation to hand over their prisoners. The sooner they could do that the better. He didn't much like the idea of having a bunch of criminals just outside and although they seemed comparatively harmless as far as crooks were concerned, he still didn't trust them. The sooner they were out of his family's hair the better. He found himself wondering why no one had thought to put the crooks away permanently before hand. Maybe they had never had the chance…

He slept relatively well throughout the rest of the night. He lay there for a moment, the thoughts of his wife remained present in his mind as they often did. It had been so long since she had been there next to him but sometimes, he swore that she was still there. It was always after dark, when he lay in his bed - or in this case his sleeping bag - that he found himself dreaming that she was there next to him, talking about their two sons. Reggie was brilliant and Paul… He would straighten out in time and he would be wonderful. He just had to make it happen… She would remind him. Daylight chased the ghosts. It always did and he found himself painfully alone.

Morning came around. He made an effort to pull himself out of his sleeping bag despite the biting cold and the fact that his body was telling him that he still needed some sleep. He emerged into the day and found that their prisoners were still very much alive and weren't frozen in place. That was always a bonus. He didn't want to have to explain to an officer Jenny why the prisoners they had taken up in the mountain were missing some of their fingers and toes.

"You guys alright?"

"Absolutely freezing!" Somehow the man still found the strength to yell.

"Yeah! No thanks to you!" Came the woman's cry.

"It'll teach you for trying to steal from others!" Brandon answered making his way over to the fire.

"We weren't even stealing from ya'!" The Meowth argued back.

He ignored them, instead starting a small fire so as to be able to prepare breakfast. No doubt that little bout of yelling would have woken up Reggie. Paul could sleep through pretty much anything. No doubt, the two of them would wake up hungry as they always seemed to be. He remembered his wife warning him a long time ago that as soon as they had a couple of children, their food bill would go through the roof. She had been right. She was right about an awful lot of things in life… He let out a sigh, unsure what to do at the end of this. True, he had a few days ahead of him with his sons but at the end of that? What then? Would they really just go their own ways and pretend to never have known each other?

Behind him, he heard his two sons emerge from their tent. They both looked groggy. Up at least an hour too early he wagered. Some warm food would solve at least some of the problem. At their age, they should be more than capable of dealing with a somewhat disrupted night's sleep. They sat down next to him, with some garbled greetings from Reggie and the usual grumpy silence from Paul. He smiled, serving them some breakfast. The family ate in silence, trying to ignore the elephant in the room or should that be on the side of the mountain. They all knew it was going to be more difficult than it sounded to bring those three crooks to the authorities given the terrain they had to cross. It would provide them with ample opportunity to escape if they timed it right…

The only good news that losing one of the tents brought was that it was a lot faster for them to tidy everything away and Brandon suddenly found himself with quite the weight off of his back. Heading over to Team Rocket, the Pyramid King decided he had better make things clear for the thieves if they were going to avoid trouble.

"Okay… Here's how it's going to work. You three will come with us. At the slightest hint of trouble, we will make you wish you had blasted off. Do you understand?"

"Yes..." They nodded slowly. "Perfectly."

He grumbled but said nothing which they could hear. He trusted those three about as far as he could throw them. They wouldn't be able to take their eyes off of them for even a second. The Frontier Brain ran a hand through his hair. This was one hell of a way to finish their camping trip. Of course, this was no where near the end yet. There was still time for the world to subject him and his family to some more cruel twists of fate. It seemed to do it so much, he was no longer even remotely surprised any more.

"You boys ready?" He asked coming over to his sons.

"Yeah..." Reggie answered slipping his bag onto his back.

"Hey. What's with that?"

Paul drew their attention suddenly. He was standing on a ledge, looking out over the land. Brandon frowned, wondering what he could possibly have seen. It took quite a lot to surprise his youngest, which allowed the father to know that it must have been something serious otherwise he wouldn't have bothered notifying them about it. At first, he couldn't see what could have drawn his son's attention. Then, his gaze fell upon what he initially thought must have been some kind of firework display. He quickly dismissed it as being something else entirely… It was coming from one of the lakes which appeared to be nothing more as a vague puddle in the distance.

The light coming from it was intense. It must have been blinding up close. Even from where they were standing, it looked like someone had lit a second miniature sun. It disappeared after a few moments but the group on the side of the mountain remained mesmorized by it, continuing to look in the same direction, almost waiting or it to begin once more.

"Brandon… What was that?" Reggie asked coming over to him.

"I- I don't know..." He admitted keeping his gaze fixed on where the light had been.

For a few more minutes, they remained simply watching. When the spectacle failed to repeat itself, he was tempted to turn away. There were a lot of things it could have been… But something about it had felt so unearthly that he still had a few shivers. The Pyramid King cast his gaze to the sky. It was clouding over, hardly surprising but the speed at which the temperature was dropping was something which did concern him rather a lot more. Something's wrong… He realized, he could feel it deep in his bones and this place which had been so peaceful and serene was no longer a good place to be. Instantly, his thoughts came back to his sons.

"We need to get off of this mountain!" He declared trying to shake his sons into action. "Now!"

They nodded, visibly a little shaken. Before any of them could start moving however, another bright light appeared. What on Earth was going on? Brandon could only stare. From this distance, they couldn't make out anything. It was all just brightness from where they were standing. Whatever was going on down there though… He could sense that it was something dangerous, something powerful. He found himself thinking back to when Pokemon Hunter J had attacked Regigigas, back then as well things had felt as if they were going south. The light died down and once more all seemed to be tranquillity, at least for a moment or so.

"There's something up with the lake…" Reggie noted looking lost. "The surface looks all-"

Brandon knew what his son meant. There seemed to be some great gaping hole in the middle of it. Could it be a whirlpool? It was hard to conceive how one of those could form in an apparently usually still body of water. What he wouldn't give for some binoculars (although he doubted they would be able to let him see far enough). Whatever was going on down there, it was truly out of this phenomena lasted for a few more moments before abruptly stopping. Everything suddenly became very still and silent. It lasted for a few seconds, no longer.

At that moment, all hell seemed to be unleashed.

A strong freezing wind began to blow and the sky clouded over, instantly blocking out the sun. With the darkness came a blizzard. The snowfall seemed to multiply in an instant. Brandon braced himself as best as he could. He knew that the weather could turn suddenly. In the blink of an eye, it could go from warmth and sun to absolutely bucketing down. In some places, he would have expected it. The side of the mountain was potentially one such treacherous area where things could change in an instant but the Pyramid King had been around a bit.

Sometimes, he wondered if he hadn't lived the life he had and seen the things that he had seen, if he would be a bit less superstitious. Naturally, he suspected that he would be. An explorer who hadn't dabbled with the supernatural wouldn't assume that it could be the cause of a storm like this. With what he had just seen however, Brandon naturally found himself wondering if it could be the cause of this sudden change in the weather. There were other times better suited for pondering what was going on. Now, it was imperative that they react to it.

"Come on!" He shouted so as to be heard over the storm. "We need to get further down!"

"I think I just saw an explosion!" Paul informed them, still looking away from the lake. It was a wonder that he could still see it.

"Move lad!" Brandon gently pushed the boy along, trying to shake him out of his stupor.

Paul shrugged him off in an instant but at least started to move. It was almost an afterthought which caused the Pyramid King to go back for their captives who had already began to be buried by the snow. He untied the rope which kept them together, pushing them along. The blizzard had gotten so severe that it was barely possible to make out anything. He could barely even stand. Leaning forwards into the wind, Brandon found himself gradually beginning to lose the feeling in his fingers and toes.

They were dressed or prepared for this. The weather shouldn't be this violent at this time of the year. Had Reggie suggested this expedition in the winter or when a storm was forecast then his father would have either called him insane and stopped him from going or ensured that they had the right clothes and equipment for it. As it was, he couldn't see anything. The snow was blinding and the sudden plummeting temperature had lead the mercury to drop far below what their clothes were far from adequate.

"This is no good!" He called out over the storm. "We need to get out of this storm! This way!"

They found some shelter in the form of a cave. It was enough to shelter them from the storm. The group dumped their bags and caught their breath content at no longer being exposed to the weather. Huddling in there looking out at the snow, it all seemed to be a veil of complete white. The winds whistled through the cracks in the rocks. The air temperature wasn't any better than it had been but at least they weren't out there in the worst of the blizzard.

There was a certain feeling of being lost as they sat there, staring out into the abyss. Something about this storm was decidedly oppressive and Brandon was willing to bet that it wasn't going to let up any time soon. He sat down on a rock, looking out into the weather front and weighing up their options. As he saw it, they didn't have all that many, barely any at all actually. Letting out a grave sigh, the man ran a hand through his hair trying to remove some of the snow which had settled there.

"Well this is just great!" Paul declared throwing himself down in a corner of the cave. "What the hell was all that stuff?!"

"I don't know." Brandon confessed shaking his head. "Nothing good at any rate."

"Do you think they're linked?" Reggie asked settling down next to his brother.

"Almost certainly." The Pyramid King agreed.

"So now what?" His youngest demanded.

"We stay put." Brandon instructed glancing back out at the blizzard. "We don't have the clothes for this sort of weather or the supplies. If we continue on, there's a good chance we'll get ourselves killed. We'll have to wait it out."

It wasn't an appealing option. He would have liked to tell his sons just how they were going to make it down the mountain and out of the storm. As he saw it, there was no safe way of doing so however. Had he been alone, he might have tried something but the idea of either of his boys attempting the descent in these conditions struck him as utterly terrifying. They had neither the experience or perhaps the skill to make their way down. That was to say nothing of the three prisoners they'd taken. There was no way they were making it down Mount Coronet. He could have tried to make it by himself and come back for them later but he didn't trust any of them to stay put for more than a few minutes.

That left them suck here and potentially for quite some time. The storm could pass over relatively quickly. On the other hand, it could last for days. He was far from sure that they would have enough supplies to last that long. There was also almost no chance of them being able to call for help with a blizzard like that out there. Thankfully, people knew they were up here. Samuel and maybe even that gym leader friend of Reggie's would start to wonder and worry if they were gone for too long.

"And just how long do you think this could last?" Paul questioned irritation marking his voice already.

"A while." Brandon replied letting out a sigh. "In truth, I don't think this storm is entirely natural. We might be trapped here until whatever it was which caused it is put right."

"That's going to be difficult with the supplies." Reggie told him looking decidedly nervous.

"We'll cope." The Pyramid King promised his sons.

They spent what must have been the rest of the morning and quite possibly a chunk of the afternoon in that cave. Time became somewhat meaningless as they sat there, trapped. They could have checked their watches but it was a curious thing, none of them did. It was as if the passing minutes and hours all just merged into each other. Even hunger failed to affect them as it should have. Lunch seemed to just pass by without any of them actually missing it. The falling temperature didn't do them any good either as Brandon found himself instinctively curling up into a ball to keep warm.

At about 4 o'clock, Reggie decided it would be best if they at least tried to eat something. With no wood, they were forced to rely on Paul's magmar to cook it. Amazingly, nobody ended up charred to a crisp or even moderately singed. The food also was somehow not utterly burnt. Brandon would have to give his son at least some credit, although he might sometimes struggle to control himself, there was no doubt that his pokemon were well-trained to say the least. One day, there was little doubt in his mind, that the young trainer would be capable of rivalling with his father, maybe even surpassing him, if he learned to keep that temper of his in check and to not get so darned emotional about some things.

"Hey..." Reggie glanced over his shoulder towards Team Rocket. "They look hungry."

"You can't be serious..." Paul muttered with disgust.

"I'm not letting them starve Paul!" His elder sibling snapped.

"You're too soft." Brandon grumbled giving the crooks a glance.

Despite his words, he shovelled some of the food he had left from his plate onto that of his eldest son. Paul hesitated a moment, looking from one to the other before letting out one of his regular "hmph"s and reluctantly giving away a portion of his own meal as well. Reggie smiled gratefully before heading over to the three Team Rocket members huddling in a corner for warmth. It was true that they weren't exactly dressed for the weather. What manner of idiots were this trio? They were fortunate to still be alive and to have landed with such a kind and considerate individual as the pokemon breeder, had it just been the Pyramid King and his youngest son, they would likely have gone hungry.

"You'll have to share." Reggie informed them handing the Meowth the plate. "We've not got a lot of plates."

"Thanks…" The group muttered in unison visibly a little surprised.

He came back to sit down with the rest of his family. Unsurprisingly, Paul made a point of ignoring him. Brandon could only roll his eyes. It really was a wonder that his eldest didn't get walked all over by people taking advantage of his good nature. He wasn't entirely foolish the man supposed but still. Showing sympathy towards criminals was something that the ageing Frontier Brain had trouble wrapping his head around. Yet that and similar types of kindness seemed to come so naturally to him, he didn't even appear to think about it. _Neither had his mother…_ Brandon thought to himself as he thought back to the woman.

Reggie sat next to him, looking into his bag. The lad's face fell a little no doubt realizing just how bad their situation potentially was. He tried to hide it from his sibling as best as physically possible. When he turned towards his father, the man simply nodded slowly, silently telling him that he was aware that this was in no way a good situation.

A few hours later, the storm was still raging. Brandon sat with his head resting against some of the rocks of the cave as he starred out into the whiteness. They weren't going anywhere soon… The sound of chattering had been irritating him for quite some time now. He shot a glare behind him to look at the three Rocket goons snuggling together for warmth but unable to stop themselves from shivering. Exasperated, he got to his feet and grabbed a blanket from his bag one of the only three they had left. He threw it over the group discourteously. They nodded gratefully. He simply rolled his eyes, some of Reggie's softness must have been rubbing off on him. Grabbing a blanket, he went back to where he had been sitting moments before.

"You three try anything. You'll regret it." He warned them before settling back down.

He pulled his own blanket up over his shoulders in an attempt to keep himself sheltered from the elements. He let out a heavy sigh before his gaze travelled over to his two sons. They were sleeping a little further away inside of the cave. For the first time in a while, the two of them were close. Reggie had his arm around his sibling, keeping him close. His heart hadn't quite decided if it was going to be warmed or if it was hurting. It was probably a bit of both. They should have been like that more often. They should always have been that close at at ease with each other. He couldn't help but feel that he should shoulder some of the blame for the wedge which had been driven between his family.

As he grew older, he found his patience with his sons both growing and becoming more limited. Reggie was a good lad. He had his faults, they all did but for the most part, he was proud of him. Paul of course… Well… The fact was that for many years now, Brandon hadn't know what to think or make of the boy. He was a kid which such obvious potential, not just in pokemon training but he was so driven that the man firmly believed that he could do whatever he put his mind to. Unfortunately, his temper and general attitude to life served to make half the people who bumped into him hate him.

He found himself closing his eyes, seeking sleep. They had nothing else to do and so had better make up for the rest they had lost due to Team Rocket's arrival. His wife's image always came back to him as he found himself drifting off. God she would hate him if she saw him now... He told himself before falling asleep.


	8. Day five (part two)

**_Sorry for the delay._**

* * *

Reggie awoke calmly. He couldn't have said how long he'd been out for. Minutes? Hours? Time didn't seem to have much of a meaning in the current circumstances. Nothing had changed from when he had fist drifted off. There was still that darned snowstorm gusting outside. That meant more snow and even more trouble getting back home. He let out a heavy sigh. Still a little chilly, it took him a moment to register that he wasn't alone. Snuggled up under the cover next to him was Paul.

His gaze softened a little trying to recall what circumstances had lead him to fall asleep like that. It wasn't that he was complaining. It was more that he struggled to remember just when they had last slept like that. Not since… He didn't even want to think back to it, it brought back too many painful memories. It was a few moments later that he caught sight of his father. The man was sleeping also. He was resting against one side of the cave but still looked desperately cold. Reggie felt his heart clench just a little. As always, he found himself longing to try and help his father but unable to abandon his brother.

He turned to check if their visitors were still with them. They were. Not even those three would be stupid enough to try and run away unprepared into a snow storm like the one they were currently trapped by. He was a little surprised that they had found a cover to keep themselves warm with. He most certainly hadn't given it to them and he doubted that Paul had unless he had woken up and been struck with the sudden urge to be kind. Whilst not impossible it was highly unlikely knowing his brother. That left only one potential culprit. It would seem that the Pyramid King did have a heart after all.

Next to him, he felt Paul stir somewhat. No doubt sensing that his elder sibling was now awake, he too was beginning to come to. That left Reggie wondering how his brother would react. Perhaps it would be best to slip away and let him wake up alone. The time it took him to think that however, the pokemon trained had woken up. He looked around a little confused. No doubt hoping that he had been suffering from a nightmare and would wake up warm and safe in his bed as opposed to still trapped out on the side of a mountain.

"Morning bro." Reggie muttered taking note of the grumpy expression on Paul's face.

"Morning? Looks more like evening to me." He grumbled in one of his typical good moods.

Surprisingly, his brother didn't pull away. No doubt he'd mentally weighed up the chill of the weather outside with the alternative of having to stick a little closer to his sibling than he might otherwise have and had decided that maybe a bit of proximity wasn't too bad. Reggie wasn't about to complain. Even with the cover and Paul close, it was still far from warm and it didn't feel as if it was about to let up any time soon. He sensed the dark look that his father was receiving curtsy of his youngest son. Even now, it would seem he couldn't let go of the past.

"Bet he hates us..." Paul muttered not taking his eyes off of the man.

"And why do you think that?" Reggie asked knowing better than to openly challenge his brother's assertion.

"Because it's him." The pokemon trainer declared firmly as if that alone meant that the man was the source of all evil. "He's Brandon, the Pyramid King!"

Reggie let out a sigh. His brother's hatred of their father was entirely irrational but that wasn't to say that he didn't understand where it could come from. Brandon was not and – from what he had been able to gather from those who knew him when he was younger – had never been an easy man to love. A prideful and cold man whom affection didn't come very naturally to. That wasn't to say that he didn't feel anything and didn't care but he wasn't very good at expressing it and much less at letting others know how he felt about them. Distance in the eyes of many became a sign of resentment or disdain. His eldest suspected that the man simply didn't know what to do.

To his sons, he cast an impressive and daunting shadow. Brandon the Pyramid King had a reputation alright not only as a great explorer but also as a trainer. Not everybody was capable of capturing the three legendary golems and it took more than luck to become the top Kanto Frontier Brain. Both sons had been on the receiving end of one a decidedly one-sided battle. Their father wasn't a man to hold back, not even against his own flesh and blood. To be fair, neither of his children would have wanted him to.

Enough wondering about such things, Paul was the sort of person to never do anything without a reason. They could seem obscure and at times spurious to others but they were always there. Whenever the pokemon trainer did something, it wasn't simply because it had suddenly taken his fancy. Something had provoked this little outburst of his and he doubted that it was simply the snowstorm and the presence of their father.

"What's brought this on?" Reggie asked him curiously.

"Nothing!" Paul snapped as a response.

"Nothing? Unlike you to get so wound up over 'nothing'. After all these years little brother, you still haven't realized that we know that where you're concerned 'nothing' means 'something'." He hesitated a moment before continuing in a softer voice. "Come on Paul. Brandon's asleep and those three sure aren't going to hear or care. You can tell me."

He didn't get a response. Ironically, where Paul was concerned that was actually a good sign. It meant that at least he was thinking about it. Had the answer been negative then he had no doubt that his sibling would have told him bluntly to mind his own business. Right now however, next to him, his little brother simply looked ahead of him blankly, no doubt he was busy wondering if he should bother responding or simply tell Reggie to go to hell. It was this sort of thing that lead him to wish for the good old days. Finally, after the best part of a minute, the pokemon trainer let out a heavy sigh.

"I-I-" Paul's voice was shaking slightly. He closed his eyes, gulped and took a deep breath to steady himself. "I dreamed of mom."

Instantly, Reggie's attitude changed. He hadn't quite been expecting that to be the reason behind his brother's behaviour. Usually, Paul avoided all things to do with their mother like the plague. He never mentioned her and refused to be in the same room if his sibling (or anyone else for that matter) brought her up. So for him to willingly mention her came as something of a surprise. Ironically, the fact that she was at the root of the problem somehow made almost painful sense to the eldest brother. In a way, she was the origin of all of this.

He allowed himself to think back to her for a moment. It was fair to say that he could remember more of their mother than his brother could simply because of the age difference. Unlike Paul though, he was capable of remembering the good, not just the bad. He knew his sibling got stuck on that one terrible night. It wasn't something he would ever confess to of course but just the way that he acted told Reggie that he was thinking of something he would rather forget. Thankfully, when he thought back to their mother, more often than not, he found himself recalling a kind smile and gentle words. He just wished that his brother could do the same.

"It's been a long time..." Reggie eventually muttered under his breath. "What were you thinking about?"

"What else?" Came the harsh but quiet reply.  
"We should talk about it."

The suggestion earned the grumble of discontentment which Reggie had been expecting. Talking wasn't something his family seemed to do. At least not on amicable terms. It was something which people tended to avoid fearing that it would lead to another of their fabled conflicts. For the most part, Reggie was inclined to play along. Granted, he might try to push his father and brother together from time to time but he knew when to back off if they wanted to avoid things getting nasty which they easily could do. As such, talking hadn't been a part of their lives in quite some time now.

He'd hoped for years that might change. Unfortunately, Paul and Brandon's animosity seemed set to last over a decade unless something changed.

"No." Was his brother's reply.

"Come on Paul. It's not as if we have anything better to do." Reggie cast his still sleeping father another glance. "He's not a monster. No matter what you think. It's time to put the past behind us. Time to talk."

"He doesn't care about us!" Paul snapped back, his voice no more than a hushed whisper.

"One talk." The Pokemon breeder repeated, his voice softening. "One last talk, that's all it is Paul."

He didn't respond, simply sitting there with his arms folded across his chest and an almost prize-winning pout on his face. Reggie remained hesitant. It was always difficult to read his brother. One thing was certain in his mind however, that no matter how peaceful the trainer seemed to be, there was a raging fire hidden deep underneath. It was one which he managed to conceal as best as he could. Anger and hatred were something best kept hidden from the rest of the world. They'd tried to get rid of Paul's. They had been trying for so long now that ironically he'd almost forgotten it existed. He let out a heavy sigh, aware that the fight was probably lost and had been for some time now.

"What are you waiting for?" Paul grumbled under his breath. "You're not going to get anything out him while he's asleep."

Reggie looked at his brother surprised. He didn't say anything however, knowing better than to push his luck. Instead, he got quietly to his feet leaving the blanket for Paul. A little stiff, he made his way over to his father. The man seemed to be sleeping soundly. Time and experience had taught him to be careful when it came to waking sleeping Pyramid Kings. They could be decidedly moody if woken up by one of their sons. He could remember sometimes jumping on the man's bed on Christmas morning to get him up. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he hadn't much appreciated it. It had only been the nature of the day as well as their mother laughing which had convinced the man not to hive them a telling off. All these years later, he still found it unlikely the man would appreciate it. Still, it had to be done.

"Brandon..." Reggie shook the man gently. "Brandon!"

The man's eyes shot open. Reggie was forced to back off as the man jumped up. Okay, so maybe he should have been a little gentler when it came to waking him up. Brandon had a bad habit of reacting as if he was under attack if someone had the bad idea of waking him up. He would sit pretty much bolt upright. More than once, he'd narrowly missed head-butting one of his sons. On occasion, he had actually made contact. Thankfully, his eldest had been fast enough to avoid being brained.

It was clear that the Pyramid King was still not quite awake. His eyes fixed his son for a moment. Then, his gaze travelled over the cave. No doubt he was trying to see just what had warranted him being woken up in such a manner. Seeing no danger, his look turned to one of quizzical curiosity and perhaps some annoyance. Frontier Brain or not, he still needed at least some sleep and didn't appreciate being woken up unnecessarily. As such, Reggie wasn't all that surprised when the response he got was a pretty darn grumpy one:

"What is it?"

"We'd like to talk." Reggie explained to the man calmly.

"Talk?" Brandon repeated raising an eyebrow. "About what?"

"Mom."

The man frowned slightly, his face clouded over. Reggie could only try to imagine what must have been going on in his mind right now. The man's gaze naturally drifted over to his youngest son. The trainer said nothing, simply starring right back at him. Something must have passed between the two of them. Brandon was no fool, he would have been weary about bringing up his wife next to his sons. It never ended well. In fact, there was no subject more likely to get tempers to flare. They had realized that one a long time ago and so had decided against bringing her up to avoid a fight. It had been like that for years. A sudden change was reason enough for them to be concerned.

He sat up slightly, leaning back against the side of the cave. Silence hung heavily for a few moments. It was entirely possible that Brandon would refuse to start talking about it. In truth, Reggie couldn't really blame him. He was far from convinced that it would be for the best but he could easily understand the man's reluctance.

"What is it you want to talk about?"

A good question. Now that he was asked the question, Reggie wasn't entirely sure he knew. He himself would have been happy simply talking about the woman, remembering the good times and maybe learning a little bit more about her. There were many questions he would have liked to ask the woman. He didn't know how many of those the Pyramid King would be able to answer. He didn't even really know when the two had met or when for that matter. Given the subject had become a taboo all he really had were pictures and memories to go by.

He turned back to Paul. He could remember even less. All the pain and resentment he felt was caused by a single event which blocked everything else out. It would be wise therefore to ensure that the conversation didn't go back to that one terrible day which it almost always seemed to. If Paul and Brandon were left to themselves they would fight, it was almost inevitable. He would therefore have to steer things away from the topics which would cause tempers to flare, something which he had become used to doing over the past few years. He wondered where they could start. What would be likely to generate fond memories as opposed to animosity.

"I don't know..." Reggie confessed looking down at his feet. "It's just. We never seem to talk about her-"

"Is this about your mother in general or about something more specific?" Brandon addressed Paul and much as Reggie.

"A bit of both..." The eldest replied reading between the lines somewhat.

Brandon let out a heavy sigh and ran a hand through his hair. Admittedly, it couldn't have been easy for the man. He rarely talked about his wife as far as Reggie was aware. No doubt it was a little too painful for him, as it was for all of them. To suddenly be asked about her by his two sons no less must have taken him off guard somewhat. Not to mention the fact that he must have had some inkling that it was likely to lead to trouble. Still, the ageing Frontier Brain looked as if he might be able to do as they requested and talk. If only Reggie knew what to talk about… That was the real challenge here.

"Your mother was a wonderful person. What more can I say?"

"Hang on..." The woman spoke up from her fellow Team Rocket members. "You three are related?"

The Pyramid King and his two sons exchanged looks. For some reason which Reggie never fully understood, people always seemed to be surprised to discover that they were related. Physically, the resemblance between them was quite clear. It was their personalities which set them all apart and apparently made them so different as to no longer even resemble a family. The eldest of the brothers supposed that it was something that would be hard to understand from the outside looking in. The few who did know them seemed to struggle to grasp why they weren't closer. The problem was that they themselves had trouble explaining it as anything other than "We're just too different."

"Unfortunately." Came Paul's grumbling reply.

It was almost enough to make Reggie's face turn up into a slight smile. There was no changing his little brother. He didn't know if that was made the lad's attitude amusing. His father never saw it that way. In his mind the way that his youngest behaved was always inadmissible. Back in the day, he had tried pretty much everything to try and get him to stop being, as the man tended to put it rather bluntly, "so darn rude to everyone". Naturally, that had only fuelled Paul's hostility. Anything to make a point. Reggie had learned to laugh at the lad. Scold him only when he was doing something inadmissible to shock him into realizing what he had said or done. Anything else was counter-productive.

If Brandon wasn't so stubborn, he would realize that instead of sitting there glaring daggers at his flesh and blood. Speaking of which, the man's answer to their earlier question had been decidedly evasive. Paul decided to ignore Team Rocket currently chattering amongst themselves about the revelation.

"Don't think you're getting out of things that easily." The eldest replied with a knowing smile. "Come on…"

"I can't just tell you everything about your mother here and now!" Brandon snapped as a reply. "We'll be here all day!"

"Yeah, cause we're really going somewhere right now."

Paul's comment caused them all to look back outside into the never-ending blizzard. It had been raging on for hours now. Never slowing but also not falling any harder. It was steady and predictable and gradually burying them. Reggie was dreading the prospect of having to fight their way through it to make it back down the mountain. It wasn't something any of them were equipped or prepared for. Even the Pyramid King for all of his experience and knowledge would likely struggle and his two sons would no doubt find it almost impossible, especially with prisoners lagging behind them.

"Fair point..." Brandon conceded letting out a heavy sigh. "I am _not_ telling you my life story however."

"Why not? Too boring?" Paul questioned slightly pointedly.

"Hardly." The man grumbled pulling his blanket up slightly. "Just tell me what you would like to know about your mother?"

"I don't know…" Reggie confessed looking to his brother for help. "I remember you telling us some stories."

"You were always asking after them." The man recalled looking away for a moment, a somewhat sad smile occupying his face. "Every night, before bed, without fail; you would demand a story or else we could be sure you wouldn't go to sleep."

"Yeah..." Reggie couldn't help but chuckle slightly thinking back to them. "Were those all true?"

"Of course." Brandon nodded to enforce his affirmation. "I tell no lies."

"There's one right there."

The Pyramid King's head snapped round to face his youngest son. The look of irritation on his face was plain to see. Most people would have shut up then and there. Brandon was one of these people who had mastered the glare which turned your blood to ice. It was enough to stop pretty much anyone in their tracks. Reggie only knew of the one person who was apparently immune to it. Unfortunately, he also happened to be the one person who continuously got into a struggle with. So he returned the look with one of his own.

Hell… Reggie help but think as he watched the two of them preparing to start up yet an argument. A few seconds, that was all that it had taken for what had started as a reasonable conversation to suddenly go down hill. He would have been better off letting his father rest and telling Paul not to worry about his dreams. It would have avoided what was now almost certain to happen.

"What is the matter with you?"

Paul didn't immediately answer. Instead, he let out what was something closer to an angry growl. Even Brandon looked to be a little confused. Reggie couldn't help but feel that he had made a terrible mistake. Sure, it didn't take much for the Frontier Brain and his youngest to start bickering once more. Usually though, it took something to start it up. In that respect, the Pyramid King might have had a point. One which of course he made with his usual tact and discretion. It was almost inconceivable apparently for the man to approach anything delicately it would seem. Already, the pokemon breeder was struggling with the urge to facepalm as he felt the situation once more slipping out of his control.

"The matter is that I'm sick and tired of you." Paul snapped back raising his voice slightly.

"How is that different from anyone else on this planet?" Brandon questioned his son, his voice remained level and calm. "Is there anyone on this Earth, lucky enough to not be hated by you?"

"I'm tired of everyone acting as if you're some sort of legend. I've heard you called 'great', 'wise' all those things but when it came down to it, you couldn't do anything, could you?!"

Instantly, Reggie's head snapped round to fix his little brother. He knew as soon as he had spoken those words that he had made a terrible mistake. Sometimes, the eldest brother forgot that his sibling didn't see the word the same way that he did. If he had a nightmare, he looked for comfort. With Paul it was different. For almost as long as he could remember, when something had scared him, he got angry at it. He tried to chase it away. It didn't matter how illogical it was or in some cases, who he ended up hurting in order to do so.

"What are you talking about?" Brandon was still angry, if he knew what Paul was referring to, he wasn't letting on.

"Forget it!" Paul demanded getting to his feet. "I'm out of here."

Reggie just sat there dumbfounded for a moment. Things had escalated so quickly that he didn't know how to react. Fortunately, his father was a little quicker on his feet and perhaps more aware of the risks of one of them storming out. He stood up and in a matter of seconds had blocked the exit to the cave. Paul still seemed to have the good sense to stop and not to try to push the man out of the way. It was a strange thing but Reggie always felt smaller in front of his father than he did if he was standing next to Tucker or Noland both of whom were a good foot taller. There was something about the Pyramid King which was just daunting. Right now, standing in the cave, his figure blocked out a good portion of the light coming from the exit. It cast a long shadow over both of his sons and obscured many of his features.

"You go out there into that storm, chances are it will kill you." The Frontier Brain informed him, obviously struggling to keep his voice level and calm.

For a moment, Reggie feared that his brother might be about to do something phenomenally stupid and try to push past the Frontier Brain. It actually looked like he might be about to. The cold looks that the two exchanged was enough to almost drive the eldest sibling to despair. He shouldn't be worrying about whether or not his father and brother were about to trade blows. He tried to tell himself that it was just the stressfulness of the situation which had lead both of them to be more on edge than normal but the truth was that this could just be any other day with his family. It seemed that they were destined to always be at war with one another.

Paul remained less than a foot away from the Frontier Brain. His hands were balled into fists. Yet Brandon, didn't move, he stood there with his arms folded across his chest. Reggie had learned from experience that if it came to blows, his father was more than capable of countering his troubled son. He would move out of the way or catch the incoming blow. He knew the boy's temper. Knew that a punch could fly sometimes if he really lost it… That allowed Reggie to breathe a little more easily. He trusted his father to deal with this sensibly.

Slowly… Without saying a word, Paul began to back down. It was a gradual thing. Just a slight movement away from the man. He didn't take his eyes off of Brandon. No matter how bad things got between the two of them. They were both always capable to look the other one in the eye. Reggie wasn't too sure if that was down to their undeniable courage, ridiculous stubbornness or that darned pride of theirs which could make interacting with their of them a pain. Very slowly however, Paul began to turn away, his body relaxed ever so slightly, so that he no longer looked like a snake recoiled and about to strike. He did so begrudgingly, not even attempting to hide the dark anger which marked each of his features.

Brandon, true to form, remained standing there with his arms folded across his chest. A deep scowl occupied his face. It seemed to deepen the lines which had begun to appear there. Both of them were a little too close to bursting point for the Pokemon breeder to be comfortable. Reggie breathed a silent sigh of relief, for a moment, he had been convinced that the two of them were about to get into a very serious fight. Thankfully, the Frontier Brain seemed to have been able to disescalate the situation. Maybe this conversation had been a mistake… Some silence was called for now, so that they could-

"You need to grow up!" Brandon what are you doing? It was literally the only thing that sprung to mind. "Get that temper of yours under control! All you're going to end up doing is getting yourself and others killed! What? Did you think you could just stroll down off of this mountain? When you let your temper get the better of you, it's not just your own life, its others. You have a responsibility not only to yourself but to others around you!"

"One which you so obviously embrace!" Paul's head snapped around as the fight started back up again. "Who are you to lecture me?!"

"The man who spends too long cleaning up after your mess and who is tired of it!" The Pyramid King yelled back at him.

"If it were up to me, we would be out of this storm by now!"

There was a point when Paul would start to make little to no sense. It was if he abandoned any attempt to do anything other than shout at Brandon. Sometimes, his brother wondered if he could even hear what he was saying. He doubted that his little brother could have guided them down the mountain. The Pyramid King had thought better of it. He knew his way around the wilds, knew what they were capable of and when it was too dangerous to continue. He had deemed it risky for them to push on and given how bad the storm was, the pokemon breeder was inclined to agree. The trainer hadn't even raised any objections at the time, meaning that he too must have agreed to a degree. If nothing else, it wasn't as if he had come up with any alternatives.

When he failed to add anything else, Brandon took the opportunity to repost. Once more, what should have been a calm and sensible conversation had turned into yet another duel between the two of them. Fortunately, it would seem that the Pyramid King was calming down at least somewhat as his next words were quieter than this previous ones had been:

"If we stay here, everything is going to be alright!" There was still anger there but Brandon had apparently at least managed to get enough self control to prevent himself from yelling. "I will keep you safe."

"The same way you said that mom was going to be alright?!" Paul's voice was so loud now that it almost felt as if the cave was reverberating. "The same way you kept her safe?!"

Everything fell silent. There was no way that Brandon had missed what his son was referring to that time. The man simply stood there gawking at him. The anger had vanished from his face in the space of seconds. Too shocked to speak, the Pyramid King simply starred at his youngest. Reggie tried to imagine what was going through his father's mind. Was he reliving those terrible events? Or was simply the concept of his own flesh and blood being prepared to use them as a weapon against him to make some kind of a point. Whatever the case, the Frontier Brain was struck dumb, it wasn't something that his son had seen all that often.

He needed a few moments to get his wits back together, that much was obvious. Paul however had swung into full battle mode. He wasn't about to give his opponent enough time to counter or even to recover. Fists clenched, he fully let lose, verbally cutting into his father with everything he had to give.

"How can you protect us?! How can you when you couldn't even do anything to save mom?!"

His yell only seemed to be all the more deafening for the silence that followed. Brandon seemed to be unmoving. Reggie would have said "made of stone" but that felt wrong. Stone couldn't feel, whereas the look of pain on the ageing man's face was so obvious that for once in his life, the pokemon breeder honestly felt like striking his brother. It was a brief urge and one which he controlled but still, to his shame it was there. Nobody should talk to another person like that, not when they knew full well how much it would hurt them.

A thought suddenly occurred to the pokemon breeder. What if Paul didn't know? He was far from the most empathetic of people. It was true, sometimes there was almost a malicious glint in his eye which spoke of the fact that he knew that he was about to hurt someone and simply didn't care, more often than not his intention was to cause some degree of pain. Maylene had been one such unfortunate example of his brother's cruel streak. Sometimes though, he genuinely didn't seem to realize that what he was saying or doing could cause offence. Given that he seemed to have it his head that Brandon was a cruel man without a hint of caring in his entire being, it was far from impossible that he didn't realize that his father would hurt just as much as he would.

"All you did was lie!" Paul's furious yelling continued. "You couldn't do anything else, could you?"

Reggie cautiously began to make his way over to his brother. It was time to end this. He'd been too slow, the damage was no doubt done but he couldn't and wouldn't let his brother tear any further into their father. No doubt the man would be seething. Brandon would only take so much before he got nasty, just like his youngest son. His temper had never been a good one and his rage was one which it was best not to be on the wrong side of. The Pokemon breeder placed a hand on his brother's shoulder, eager to pull him away and to put some distance between the two of them.

"No..." Brandon let out in a pained sigh.

It was so rare to hear the man say the word in anything than an eardrum shattering bellow that Reggie found himself compelled to turn back to face his father, surprised that the man had chosen to speak. He had expected the man to remain silent, allowing tensions to die down somewhat. Instead, he had done the opposite, drawing attention to himself once more. The Frontier Brain was standing there, with his hands balled into fists, looking down at the ground a few feet away from where he was currently standing. He looked lost, confused, nothing like the man whom his eldest was used to seeing. For what might have been the first time in his son's memory, he actually looked _vulnerable_.

It was a strange thing, generally the Pyramid King gave off the impression of being like a rock, made of steel or with a heart of ice. In many ways, he reminded his son of his signature pokemon. Hard, resilient and ridiculously difficult to beat. He could take pretty much anything and come bouncing back from it. More often than not it barely seemed to register with him as more than an irritation. Paul brought out the worst of the man. To be fair, it worked the opposite way around as well, he had the same effect on his youngest son. Nothing could hurt him it would seem, at least not enough to get anything other than anger for a reaction.

Even Paul seemed a little surprised that his comments had been able to cut such a deep hole in the Frontier Brain as to render him into such a state. Reggie was about to say something to stop things from getting any more out of hand: something along the lines of "Lets talk about this later.". They needed to let their emotions die down for a while before they could even think about doing anything. To his surprise however, Brandon beat him to the punch.

"I couldn't save your mother… Nothing I did- I couldn't..." The words didn't seem to be coming very easily to him. "I..."

He let out a shaky sigh. Neither of his sons dared try to feel the gap that he left. There was something deeply troubling about seeing the man they typically thought of as unmovable looking so lost and distraught. Reggie simply didn't know what to say. He knew with Paul that the best thing to do was to give the lad some space if you wanted to avoid a mouth full of hostility and abuse. He was someone who needed time and space to recover and would do so himself without any comfort from others. He didn't know about Brandon. The man simply didn't tend to show that much emotion around others, at least not that he knew of. As such, he simply didn't know what to do.

As he noticed that his father was struggling to hold back tears. Reggie felt a mixture of helplessness and fear overcome him. This had gone too far. Far too far… Things had been said which couldn't be taken back. Now the Pyramid King stood there almost broken. This had been a mistake. A terrible mistake which there was no going back from. It took him another few moments of stunned silence but Brandon eventually seemed to get a hold of himself. His face became sterner once more as he clenched his teeth seemingly battling a pain of some kind.

"-That's going to haunt me for the rest of my days."

When he turned back to face his sons, his expression had changed completely. Anger now marked his features. It was a look which made Reggie back away instinctively. A warning… They needed to stop now. Paul especially. There was only so far you could push a person before they broke completely. Reggie really didn't want to discover what his father was like when he was pushed past that point. No matter was his sibling thought he could handle, he doubted that the Pokemon trainer wanted to either.

"Now you will hold your tongue in my presence!"

It was a command, plain and simple. One which truly frightened his eldest. Even on his best days, the man had something of a temper that was best not crossed. At least he was kind enough to let them know when he was at end's rope. Tugging at his brother, Reggie tried to pull him away. If they were a little further from each other, then maybe things would start to calm down. Both needed to just stop and think.

 _Leave it Paul. Just leave it…_ Reggie silently willed his brother. Brandon was hurting. A man torn open. He could see it in the man's eyes. His patience was at its limit. Anyone could tell he was very close to snapping. His sibling wasn't backing off. He remained rooted to the spot, looking their father dead in the eyes. He didn't move. Didn't blink. Accepting the challenge which for some reason he perceived as being given. Dread began to fill the pokemon breeder as he realized that despite everything his little brother wasn't about to do the sensible thing and let things lie.

"Is that what you did? Did you never question anything your father said?!"

It was an awkward jab because all Paul knew how to do in times like this is cause trouble but instantly, Reggie saw that it had made its mark in a way that neither of them could have foreseen.

There father's face changed. It no longer belonged to the man they knew. There was something different about him. Something angry, well angrier. Despite everything, the Frontier Brain for the most part seemed to always be in control of his emotions. He was level-headed enough to be trusted not to do anything rash. He was the one telling his youngest to keep a hold on himself and to try to avoid being ruled by his emotions. All that was gone now. What remained was, perhaps describing it as "mad" would be a bit strong but it wasn't far off. Reggie always trusted his father to keep control of himself, it didn't matter how loudly he yelled, he would never hurt them. For the first time in his life, he wasn't so sure. He realized suddenly that he was afraid of the man.

"As a matter of a fact I did talk to my father like that once and he beat me half to death for it!"

Reggie simply blinked a few times, struggling to process what was going on. He wanted to run. He'd grab Paul, pull the Pokemon trainer back a bit seeing as he obviously couldn't be trusted to know how to tell when enough was enough. Get some distance between themselves and the Pyramid King in order to give the man enough time to calm down a bit and then try as hard as he physically could to forget everything that had just happened. He found himself unable to move, he couldn't even speak. Something about what Brandon had just said - the anger and pain behind his voice was unmistakable – somehow compelled him to stay there and simply gawk at the Frontier Brain as if he had never seen him before.

He didn't know much about his father's past. The man had always been incredibly evasive when the subject was brought up. Actually, that wasn't strictly speaking true. He would quite easily talk about his past adventures and history up until a point. There seemed to be some sort of barrier about almost everything which concerned his boyhood and teenage years. He never mentioned them and for the most part wouldn't reply or explain that he didn't feel like talking about it. The past was in the past and all that. For the first time, Reggie felt that he could understand why that part of their father's existence had always been one he had strived to keep secret.

Silence lasted for a few moments. Brandon was too angry to respond and his sons simply too shocked. It must have been the best part of a minute before finally Paul managed to gather enough of his thoughts to ask in a quiet, almost timid voice marked by uncertainty:

"What's that supposed to mean?"

" _What's that supposed to mean?_ " Brandon repeated mockingly as a rare fury took over him. "What the hell do you think it means?! It means the one time I ever got mouthy with my father, he took a freaking bottle, broke it over my shoulder and hit me until I passed out!"

Paul really should shut up… It was all that Reggie could think as he stood there. Brandon was getting close to the edge of reason. He'd never seen the man pushed that far before. Thankfully, by the looks of things, he had realized that he had stepped over some serious boundaries and was now in some major trouble. The rage of the Frontier Brain was almost tangible, his pain was as well. It was something the Pokemon Breeder felt that he couldn't understand. Generally, he tried to put himself in his other's shoes. He found that it helped him understand them, especially with people like his father and brother. Right now however, he didn't even particularly want to try.

Picturing his father young was a difficult task. He didn't know how old the man had been at the time of these events. Young probably but maybe not a child. A teenager, perhaps? Old enough to try talking back at any rate. Anyone who had ever known his parents had always said that Paul took after Brandon in the looks department. Therefore, whenever he imagined his father in his youth, the man tended to look a lot like his brother. He'd never seen anyone other than his sibling take a swing at the Pyramid King (not many people were that stupid it would seem) so the idea of him being hit was about as alien as the notion of their grandfather was. That did explain why that side of their family was one they had never met and knew precious little about.

An awkward silence settled in. The anger lingered plain for everyone to see. Team Rocket in their corner had wisely opted to remain silent. A good choice in Reggie's opinion, peeping up in their situation would likely only have lead to either Paul or Brandon (potentially both) taking out their frustrations on them.

It took a few moments but Brandon actually appeared to be calming down at least somewhat. His breathing was slowing down to a more regular rhythm which no longer sounded like he was straining to contain the urge to scream. Instead, he turned away shaking his head slightly as Reggie believed that the Frontier Brain was gradually beginning to regain a sense of himself. The man let out a short dry laugh. It was devoid of any traces of humour however coming across as cold and harsh rather than anything else. His sons exchanged an uncertain glance, unnerved by the uncharacteristic behaviour. The laughter died down after a few seconds, no doubt whatever had struck him as amusing, if it even had had just lost its charm.

He turned back to look at his youngest son. His eyes showing some of the pain that he felt as he stood before his own flesh and blood.

"Your mother would have been ashamed of you, boy."

There was a dark cruelty behind those words which was only too clear to his sons. He actually meant it. In a way, Reggie knew why he had said it. He was hurting so like most people, or animals for that matter, did when they had been injured: they lashed out. Any other day, he would probably never had said something like that, not when he knew just how much it would wound his son.

It was a strange series of circumstances which lead to what happened next. Reggie was a little too distracted by what his father had just said, perhaps "distracted" was the wrong word, horrified would have been more accurate to take note of Paul's reaction. It was one hell of a thing to say to his son made all the harsher by the fact that it was quite plain that he actually believed it. Honestly, perhaps the worst thing was that try as he might, Reggie couldn't exactly disagree with his father. Their mother would probably have been ashamed of her whole family. Not just her angry youngest but her cold husband and powerless eldest who couldn't do anything to keep the ones he loved from tearing each other apart. Lost in that terrible realization, everything else seemed to disappear for a few moments. He forgot about his sibling, not even bothering to check his reaction. He should have realized that it was only likely to get one response: pain which would inevitably lead to anger.

Paul flew fast him. The boy moved far too fast for his daydreaming sibling to even try to catch. For a moment, Reggie assumed that he was trying to run away the way that he so often did in situations like this. It was with horror that he realized that his target wasn't the exit but rather the man still partially blocking it. He leapt forwards, fist clenched. Bizarrely, Brandon didn't seem to be ready for it either.

The blow connected with the right of his face. The Frontier Brain stumbled backwards no doubt from a mixture of the impact and shock. He collided with one of the cave walls, using it to brace himself. Paul wasn't quite done however as he swung yet another fist at the man. This one hit his chest. Acting quickly Brandon moved forwards. Surprising his son by both his speed and strength, he managed to get the lad in a headlock. Paul wasn't so easily stopped however. Fuelled by anger, he continued to try and hit the man as hard as he could.

Brandon however wouldn't release him. Reggie knew his father possessed the strength of a tauros. Years of exploring ruins and making his way by himself in the world had made him both tough and resilient. This wasn't his first fight. Although it was the first time he'd ever been forced to resort to violence to deal with one of his sons. The man struggled for a while, visibly having difficulty both keeping hold of the pokemon trainer as he struggled wildly, screaming with fury as he did so but also trying to avoid cutting off his oxygen supply. Eventually, by turning slightly, he managed to get his youngest onto his knees and in a position where he could no longer lash out, forcibly de-escalating the situation.

Reggie could do nothing but stare. His brother's agonized cries of rage echoed all throughout the cave as he desperately attempted to do anything he possibly could to hurt their father. The man didn't budge however, not even making an attempt to wipe the blood which flowed freely from his cut lip now. Tears of rage poured out of his sons eyes as he must have realized that he had been beaten. It was enough to shake him out of his stupor.

"That's enough..." Reggie stepped forwards.

He couldn't have said whether it was Paul still thrashing around like a madman or Brandon in his desperate attempt to keep a hold of his son but something connected with him sending him flying backwards to the ground. Stunned and a little hurt, he just sat there for a moment with the wind knocked out of him and trying to figure out what had just happened. Gathering his senses, he looked up to see that the fighting had ended both father and son were starring at him, obviously shocked. He got up quickly, taking advantage of the moment of calm to try and definitively put the end to the hostilities.

One glance however told him that he was too late to take back the damage though. Brandon was bleeding and what had been said couldn't be forgotten.

"I..." Reggie began but was unable to think of any words which would make it any better.

"Forget it!" Paul spat grabbing his bag. "I'm out of here!"

"Paul…" Reggie started up once again.

"No! You know what? I've had it with you and I've had it with Brandon! As of right now, I'm no longer part of this… Hell! We haven't been a family since mom died!" He reached into his pocket, pulling out the necklace. "You can have this back!"

The boy threw the locket at his father. It struck the man's cheek before hitting the ground. Brandon paid little heed to it or to Paul. Instead, he simply fixed a corner of the room. There was a fair bit of blood on his chin now but he made no attempt to wipe it away. Instead, he stood there as if he was somewhat above all of this. Reggie looked to him desperately searching for some help. Already, he knew what was going to happen. He could see it unfold as Paul stormed towards the exit of the cave, seemingly oblivious to the storm still raging outside.

"Stop!" Reggie rushed after his brother. "Paul you can't go out there!"

"Can't I?" He raised an eyebrow pausing briefly.

"Not in that storm!" The Pokemon Breeder declared. "You'll be killed."

"I'll take my chances!" His sibling snapped continuing to walk. "It's better than spending one more second in here, that's for sure!"

"Brandon!" Reggie turned to his father for support.

"What?" Paul shot the man a cold glare. "You going to stop me old man?!"

The Pyramid King shifted his gaze slightly so that it was resting on his son. The man remained completely silent. His dark eyes fixed his son with a look which Reggie simply couldn't decipher. He wanted the man to say something. To do something, _anything_ , to put an end to this. For a moment, just a few glittering seconds of hope, it looked as if the Frontier Brain might be about to act, to use that authoritarian voice of his to call Paul back and tell him not to be such a fool. For a moment, even his youngest seemed to be almost be expecting it as he lingered half way in and half way out of the cave.

Then, the man simply turned away. It was a resentful dismissal. One which spoke only of disdain for the lad. Paul huffed slightly, turning his back.

"Didn't think so."

A second later, he was gone. He disappeared into the storm. They were able to keep track of his silhouette for a few seconds before that too was engulfed with ice and snow. For a moment, Reggie simply stood there starring at where his brother had been. It was as if he couldn't quite process that his sibling had gone. A thousand thoughts swam around in his head. The urge to both start chasing after him, screaming his name and just to collapse on the floor and start to cry tore at the young man leaving him just standing there, completely lost.

It was finally his father which brought him back to his senses and made him once more aware of the world around him. The man walked slowly. Initially, Reggie dared to hope that he might be about to chase after his youngest son but instead, he simply headed to where the locket had fallen or rather had been thrown. Carefully, treating it as if it were made out of glass, he picked the small piece of jewellery up. He dusted it down, examining it for dents, all under the gaze of his still stunned eldest. Brandon remained standing there, simply looking at the item fondly but making no attempt to hide his sorrow either.

Finally, unable to bear the inaction any longer his eldest cried out at him:

"Come on! You have to do something! Go after him! He could get killed out there!"

Brandon shot Reggie a cold glare which instantly made him be quiet. He didn't recognise the Frontier Brain if the truth was told. Standing there, with blood running down from his cut lip, dirty, with the beginnings of some stubble and a wild look in his eye, he wasn't the man whom the pokemon trainer felt he knew. This could have been his real father, the man whom he barely ever saw in which case the Pyramid King was an incredible disguise. He walked over to a rock near the entrance to the cave, sitting there the man didn't take his eyes off of him giving him a piercing look which felt as if it carried almost as much resentment as Paul had received. He was still seething, still angry, if he wasn't yelling it was only because right now, he probably knew there was no point.

"Do I?" The Pyramid King grumbled lowly.

He wiped some of the blood away with the back of his hand. It was still coming but at least he no longer had the same horror factor. The blow must have hurt. Paul hadn't held back his punches, the lad seldom did. Sitting there, the man said nothing leaving his eldest to only try and imagine just what was going on inside of his head. Right now, Reggie found himself wondering if he even wanted to try, much less get an answer. Some things were best not even imagined.

The silence lasted a few moments. It was one that Reggie didn't dear to break. What could he say? He cast his glance out into the storm. Those winds were harsh and freezing, he could feel that even from inside of the cave, he dreaded to imagine what it would be like for Paul out there exposed to the elements. Perhaps, he hoped, in a few minutes he would realize how stupid he was being and come back in to the shelter. It was wishful thinking he suspected. He knew his little brother well enough to know that he was so stubborn as to prefer freezing to death to actually coming back to them.

Brandon let out a sigh prompting his eldest to turn back to see him. The anger had vanished from his face now and was replaced by a look of acceptance. The calmness had returned to him it would seem. He shook his head slightly before declaring:

"It was a brave attempt son but I'm afraid this is it." He got to his feet.

"Whoa!" Sensing what was about to happen, Reggie blocked the exit. "Where are you going?"

Brandon smiled softly. He didn't attempt to push past. He could have quite easily. Instead, the man stayed a respectable distance away. In his heart of hearts, Reggie knew what was coming. He knew what the Pyramid King was going to try and do which was why he was struggling so desperately to stop him. If the man walked off now, they were forever be divided, he was certain of that much. Paul was probably never going to talk to either of them again, at least not voluntarily. Not to mention the likelihood of him freezing to death out there if they did nothing. Their father couldn't walk away, not right now, not like this…

"Dad..." Reggie began looking the man dead in the eyes.

"Enough of this." The man declared taking a step forwards. "You're a good person Reggie, you don't deserve to be saddled with me or your brother."

There it was again. That word "saddled". It was as if both his father and brother perceived the family being together as a nuisance. They saw the other as being a burden of some kind. In a way, they weren't exactly wrong. Both would inevitably start bickering in the other's presence. It made them unbearable to pretty much everyone who had ever known them. There was a reason there were no more family get togethers. Nobody could put up with the never ending fighting. It was simply too painful to witness. He knew his father's position. He knew his brother's position. He found himself unable to reconcile himself with them however.

He found himself trapped there as his father began to walk past him. He wanted to stop the man. If Paul had been in his position (provided that he cared) he wouldn't have hesitated to get in the way. He would have grabbed the man if the need arose and physically tried to hold him back. A scream of anger was trapped somewhere in the back of his throat. Curiously, it was the Pyramid King who stopped, almost as if he had sensed his son's hesitation.

"Time to put the past behind us, Reggie..." The man muttered, lingering for a moment. "Paul was right. We don't belong together. You just… Live your life, forget about us. We'll find our own ways."

"Are you kidding me?!" Reggie muttered feeling tears stinging at the corner of his eyes. "I don't buy that for a second! Get back here! Dad! Dad! BRANDON!"

It was no good. Without saying another word, the man disappeared into the whiteness of the storm outside. His eldest son remained rooted to the spot. Completely lost and alone.

His family was gone. They had finally done it. They had torn themselves to pieces. Each and everyone of the them was well and truly abandoned by the others…


End file.
